Girl kicked off plane for coughing
Categories: Places to go, Education
School trips are rough. Getting sick on a school trip is even worse. Harder still, is when, at 16, you're kicked off the fight home because you're having a coughing fit -- so you're left alone with a teacher in New York City with no accommodation while your bags head back to Hawaii without you.
That's what happened to Rachel Collier right before her flight to Honolulu took off. After boarding with her classmates and promptly falling asleep, the high school student woke up coughing and gasping for air. Even though a doctor on the flight said she'd be fine for the 10-hour flight, and she'd be given water by flight attendents, the Continental Airlines pilot kicked her off.
Collier finally made it back to Hawaii the following day, with one of her teachers who stayed behind to make sure she got home safely.
Of course the airline has released statements saying the pilot felt he was acting in the best interest of the other passengers, and I'm sure he thought he was -- but could this really have been the best course of action? Why would the pilot assume he had more medical knowledge than the doctor on board? It doesn't sound like the coughing fit was delaying the flight -- so why the knee-jerk reaction?
If I was her parent, I'd be pissed.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Kelly 3-30-2007 @ 6:25PM
It was probably a difficult decision for the pilot as he was taking the airlines liability and his own job into consideration. What if she wasn't ok and she grew worse once they got in the air? Everyone would have been delayed in that case. Sure there was a doctor on board but was he able to gather her entire medical history? It's unfortunate but I understand the choice.
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Jenny 3-30-2007 @ 6:45PM
I think he probably should have taken the doctor's word for it, but he was erring on the side of caution.
But to answer your question: "Why the knee-jerk reaction?" If her condition had worsened and they had to re-route the flight it could cost the airline in excess of $100,000. They would have to dump all the fuel onboard for a 10 hour flight, because it is not safe to land a fully fueled plane. Then they would have had to re-fuel and depending on the time status of the crew it is possible that they would have to get a new crew. With a 10-hour-flight it doesn't take much of a delay to need a new crew. They would then have to compensate everyone on board for the delay. It is possible they would have to land at an airport not serviced by Continental, which gets into a whole additional set of issues and expenses. A night in New York is nothing to the potential expense. Perhaps the pilot had a bad experience before.
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jennifer 3-31-2007 @ 12:50PM
What if they had taken off and that extreme coughing fit turned into a severe asthma attack or congestive heart failure and she had died? The doctor knew nothing of her condition and didn't have the tools to check her out correctly.
Hindsight is useless when someone is dead. They aren't coming back. Better safe then sorry. Which headline sounds worse to you:
"Girl kicked off flight for coughing"
OR
"Teenage Girl dies midflight from severe asthma attack. Passengers report of severe pre-flight distress."
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Rachel May 4-02-2007 @ 10:47AM
I have to admit that if I had been on that plane, I would have wondered if she was contagious. What if somehow she had contracted something like TB? The whole plane would have had it by the time they landed 10 hours later.
I agree with PP that the doctor on board had no way to properly diagnose her. That's not to say he's incompetent; he just didn't have access to the right tools.
My dad's a doctor, and you wouldn't BELIEVE the number of people that just walk up to him at church or wherever and ask for a diagnosis on the spot. He always tells them to go see their own physicians. Mostly, he's worried about lawsuits... it's a wonder that this doctor wasn't either. What if he had misdiagnosed and she had some hugely communicable or life-threatening disease? The girl's mom and anyone who got sick on the plane could potentially be all over his back. It's scary.
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