A very sad story out of Orlando, where two middle-aged sisters were deemed a “security risk” and thrown off a flight, prohibiting them from saying goodbye to their father on his deathbed.
As their Allegiant Air flight prepared to take off for Asheville, North Carolina, one sister received a text message that their father — already in a hospice — had only hours to live. Due to the last-minute nature of the booking, they were not seated together. She walked back to her sister (seated somewhere behind her) and sat down nearby. A FA ordered her to return to her seat. Rather than complying, she explained what had just happened and ask for permission to stay where she was.
The sister piped in that the FA was being rude.
The Allegiant FA allegedly told the sisters to “keep their personal problems off the plane”.
That triggered a panic attack in the sister. The FA notified the captain, who returned the aircraft to the gate. Deemed a “security threat”, the women were escorted off the aircraft. The FA allegedly lied to authorities that the sisters refused to obey orders and used foul language.
Hours later their father died.
You can watch the heartbreaking story here:
Fellow Passenger Backs Up Sisters on YouTube
We know their are two sides to every story and perhaps the sister was not as polite to the FA as she intimates above. We also know that rule #1 is to follow FA safety instructions when onboard a plane.
But come on! Their father was dying! The two sisters just wanted to be near each other!
Another passenger stepped forward and posted this on YouTube:
Listening to that further makes me side with the two sisters. Her narrative, though, slightly contradicts the sister’s above. She claims the sisters were always seated across form each other and neither ever rose from their seat. I have a feeling she started paying attention after the commotion began.
Allegiant released the following statement:
At Allegiant, we rely on our crew members to provide and oversee a safe environment for every passenger, on every flight. We expect that authority to be exercised both judiciously and consistently, with empathy and with good judgment. We take this customer feedback seriously and are in the process of conducting an investigation into what occurred.
Now, the sisters are calling for the FA to be fired. I think they should be calling for the captain’s head instead – it was his call whether to throw them off or not and he cowardly caved into what sounded like a monster of a FA.
My condolences to these two sisters on the loss of their father. I trust they they will receive an apology from Allegiant.
> Read More: Thrown Off a United Flight for Taking a Picture of My Seat
Matthew: since the day FA’s and other airline personnel were given the right to make our lives miserable by just snapping their fingers I have been disgusted by even entering an airport. Fr9m the moment I enter the airport to the moment I leave the other I don’t say a word unless I am asked something. It is like walking on eggs. Anyone now can decide if you a re threat or not and basically destroy your life (in case you are placed on a no-fly list). I fly a lot for business and pleasure but again I enter and leave the place without saying a single word if possible.
Yup, Nowadays there are many rude FAs. Specially American FAs. This had just happened to me few weeks ago. I was in the AA flight from Miami to Aruba and I tried to call one of the FAs. She looks like a pretty old FA… maybe around 55-60 years old. I was trying to call her several times but she could not hear me, so I used my finger to tap her back. She was mad at me and told me never did that again because she couldn’t tell the difference between me tapping my finger on her back or someone pointing a gun to her back. I was so puzzled but I just kept my mouth shut. As far as I know, if I have ever said the word “gun” or “bomb” in the plane, I could be in trouble. So how come this FA had liberty blabbering about gun stuff. SMH.
it’s nothing to do with compassion or not. the rule says as such during take-off, taxing, landing. you sign a contract to do so, it does not say under extreme stress you are exempt. it’s a sad thing about their father. had they follow the rule they can see him one more time, after all that’s why they book that flight so they see him. It’s all their fault.
Could you please explain what rules are in this contract that you said we sign that forbids the woman to change seats to be close to her sister? I would agree you cannot just take an empty seat on first class if you paid coach, you cannot take an empty seat on Economy Plus or similar if you paid coach but where is it written you cannot seat on a different COACH seat than the one on your boarding pass? As far as I know Allegiant does not offer first class so what rule was she breaking for moving to an empty seat? Where did you read she changed seats during take off, taxing or landing?
To answer your question it is not an issue of the passenger changing to a different class of service, the passenger was changing during taxi. It specifically stated in the story that the plane was on the tarmac. This is indeed a rule violation, but I do agree that even though there was a rule violation this FA was a jerk and lied to get the people off the plane.
The FA should be put on the no fly list.