Family kicked off flight for having "noisy" children
A family has been kicked off a flight in the US for having “rowdy” children. Craig Schilling and his wife, Erin Gatling, took to Facebook Live to share their thoughts on the incident in a video that’s gone on to rack up over 40,000 views around the world.
The pair, who live in Los Angeles, were informed by Southwest Airlines that they could not continue on their route home from a family vacation because their children, three-year-old Gunner and 16-month-old Paige, were being too “rowdy”.
Schilling explained that a dozen police officers were brought onto the flight along with a crime dog, simply because his children were being too “noisy” on the flight.
“They did not cry or scream at all during the flight,” Gatling wrote in an Oct. 9 Facebook post.
“My biggest frustration is that no one will tell me what ‘being a disturbance’ means. The only further explanation was ‘running up and down the isle and jumping on tray tables.’ First, we never opened our tray table so jumping on them didn’t occur (though I will admit my oldest has tried to stand on them on previous flights, just not this flight) and we were in the isle only one time.”
Gatling also thinks the fact she let Paige walk solo in the aisle was problematic.
Per her Facebook post, “I got up to take my oldest to the restroom. We sat 3-5 rows from the rear, as always. We walked out of the restroom my husband let my 16 mo old walk to me. Is a baby walking 3-5 isles by herself to her mom not ok????”
But it doesn’t end there. Shilling contends a flight attendant stepped on his wife’s foot, causing her to “cry in pain”.
Gatling explains, “I went to grab (my daughter) and an attendant stepped between me and her, literally stepping on my foot. I said ‘excuse me ma’am, you just stepped on my foot’ and then shrugged it off as I reached around the attendant and picked her up and went to our seats. We never got up again. What the heck is happening?”
When Schilling was accused of “bumping” someone with a stroller that was the final straw and the family which led to his arrest and the family being booted from the flight.
However, he wrote in a comment, “I never bumped anyone with our stroller. I didn’t get out of my seat the whole flight or order any refreshments. The kids were better behaved then usual and nobody from the airline talked to me about anything during the flight.”
Schilling reportedly has a court case in November.
Southwest Airlines responded to the incident with the following statement:
“In addition to providing legendary customer service to each customer onboard, our flight attendants are responsible for enforcing regulations as well as our policies to ensure the safety of those traveling with us. Our reports indicate customers traveling onboard flight 102 were not following inflight instructions.
"A Southwest supervisor met the customers upon arrival at their connecting city, Chicago, to discuss the events that occurred onboard. The customers were unwilling to be approached by our employees in the airport and when the situation escalated, local authorities became involved.”
The statement continues: “We made the decision to issue a refund to the customers based on the reaction to our attempts to discuss safe travel to their final destination. The safety and wellbeing of our customers and employees is of the utmost importance to all of us at Southwest Airlines, and we are disheartened by the way this situation unfolded.”
What are your thoughts? Do you think this is an overreaction from Southwest Airlines? Or are Schilling and Gatling only giving a pretty skewed version of the story?
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