Arizona mom claims passengers clapped as sick son was removed from flight
Feb 24, 2016, 3:06 PM | Updated: 10:37 pm
(Facebook Photo)
(Facebook Photo)
PHOENIX — An Arizona mother claimed passengers clapped as her son, who was having an allergic reaction, was removed from a flight this week.
Christina Fabian-Roman said her family was flying home to the Phoenix area from Bellingham, Washington on Monday when her 7-year-old son began to have an allergic reaction to a dog that was on the delayed flight.
An Allegiant Airlines flight attendant was able to move the family elsewhere on the plane, but airport medical services said it may be unsafe for the child to fly and the family was asked to leave the plane.
“When we stood up and walked to the front of the plane, the (people) in the back of the plane applauded,” Fabian-Roman said.
She said her son never had such a reaction to a dog before.
“Things come up and we don’t always know what to expect and it was just one of those unexpected things.”
Fabian-Roman said her son apologized to his family after they stepped off the plane.
After deplaning, Fabian-Roman and her family were told they would be allowed to take the next Allegiant flight to Phoenix on Wednesday.
Fabian-Roman said her family is not angry at the airline, but she feels at least one flight attendant acted out of line.
“It wasn’t the flight attendant’s fault we got off the plane … it was the flight attendant’s attitude that perpetuated people’s agitated behavior around us,” she said. “It’s just the comments she had made.”
She also said the family, who was traveling with her terminally-ill husband to see family, doesn’t want anything from Allegiant.
“We’re not looking for anything else,” she said. “It’s not Allegiant’s fault we got deplaned. We’re not looking for any type of compensation.”
Instead, Fabian-Roman said she hopes the incident serves as a reminder that everyone should be treated with compassion.
“We don’t know everybody’s story, you don’t know what people are going through,” she said.
Allegiant said it had apologized to Fabian-Roman and “forwarded the family’s feedback on to the appropriate teams within the company to ensure any necessary service improvements will be made.”
KTAR’s Martha Maurer contributed to this report.
