Miniature horses may be allowed, but squirrels? Not so fast.
A wheelchair-bound woman in Orlando was thrown off a Frontier Airlines flight for refusing to part with her so-called “emotional support” squirrel.
Frontier Airlines Flight 1612, bound for Cleveland, was set to depart Tuesday night when a “situation” developed onboard. A passenger had indicated that an emotional support pet would accompany her when booking her reservation, but never indicated what type of animal that would be. Turns out it was a squirrel.
Squirrels, according to Frontier’s guidelines on emotional support animals, are not permitted onboard:
We do not accept unusual or exotic animals including but not limited to rodents, reptiles, insects, hedgehogs, rabbits, sugar gliders, non-household birds or improperly cleaned and/or animals with foul odor.
When told by flight attendants that squirrels were not permitted onboard, she put up a fuss, refusing to exit the aircraft. Rather than risk another David Dao incident, all other passengers were instructed to exit the aircraft. Most had no idea what was going on.
The police were called and eventually the woman was wheeled off the aircraft. You can see, based on the video below, that she was not at all pleased about her ejection, as she extends her middle finger to the crowd of onlookers. No word on whether she was fined or prosecuted.
— Brandon Nixon (@bnix4) October 10, 2018
Passengers re-boarded shortly thereafter and the Frontier flight ultimately reached Cleveland about two hours late.
CONCLUSION
While not as egregious as the peacock incident, did this lady really think she could get away with a squirrel onboard? If anyone has her contact info, feel free to put me in touch…I’d love to get her side of the story.
Crazy story (and lady)! Can’t believe she flipped off the other pax after inconveniencing them!
I should point out that you might want to make a few corrections both in the title and in the post (twice). Women = plural. Woman = singular. 😉
It has been one of those days! Thank you for correction.
Wow, this is almost as crazy as buying Swiss F tickets after the Aeroplan award cancelation debacle…
But I wasn’t thrown off the plane! 😉
Kudos to Frontier!
We used to have crazy cat ladies. Crazy squirrel lady.
A properly restrained squirrel, in some kind of reciprocal, has far less potential for trouble than a dog or cat. Probably giving the finger because she was getting grief from the angry passengers.
“A properly restrained squirrel, in some kind of reciprocal, has far less potential for trouble than a dog or cat.”
Pretty useless comment unless you can verify that the squirrel was “properly restrained”. You also assume that a dog or cat wouldn’t be in some sort of equivalent “reciprocal”.
What a class act. People like this should NOT be reaccomodated, not today, not tomorrow. Go buy another ticket on another airline – on your own dime to where you have to go. Inconveniencing 100+ other passengers is the height of selfishness and should not be reaccomodated in any sense of the word. Maybe if airlines stuck to this “penalty” or “punishment” to the offender, people would think twice about their selfish conduct.
I still don’t want to be on any plane with someone requiring an ’emotional support animal’. Service dogs for blind and deaf people which are expertly trained are fine but there it ends. Well done to Frontier.
Anyone who needs a squirrel for emotional support/ needs to see a Dr, not a squirrel.
Did she flush it down the toilet so she could fly — like that college student did with her hamster?
I don’t understand what’s the problem in bringing a squirrel on the plane. Many other airlines allows it…