Family Removed From Flight After Teen With Down Syndrome Threw Up

A teenage boy with down syndrome and his family were booted from an Alaska Airlines flight headed from St. Louis to Seattle after Easter weekend when the boy threw up a little, his sister said. The family was in St. Louis visiting another son who attends college in the city.

Meaghan Hess, 24, who works for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, said her brother, Pat, 19, and her parents were kicked off the flight on the night of April 2. She questioned whether the airline would have removed a family from a flight had a non-disabled child thrown up or if any other person had thrown up in an airline-provided garbage bag.

Alaska Airlines then rebooked the family for a flight that left several hours later in the early morning hours of April 3, Hess said.

"The desk left them stranded at the airport for nearly 11 hours knowing that my family had nowhere to go for the night," Hess wrote in an email to Patch.

Hess said her parents called the 1-800 number asking for help, but were told there was nothing else the airline would do and that they should have been charged for the 6 a.m. flight. Hess, who was not traveling with her family, said she reached out to the airline via Twitter but said she received no help and was met with what seemed like veiled threats to charge her family for the flight. Hess says she was also told the airline would not provide a hotel and that there was no lounge at the airport where the family could go.

"There really seemed to be no effort to help my family, fully knowing that they were stranded at the airport for nearly 11 hours, overnight, with a special needs teen, who Alaska themselves decided was sick," Hess said.

Hess said the airline's actions were upsetting because they made no effort to make sure her brother was comfortable and OK. Her brother was handed a black garbage bag by the airline and told he could throw up in that, she said.

Other airport workers did help her family, including a maintenance worker who gave them paper towels and suggested a cold compress for her brother. An airport security officer stayed with the family and tried to help them find a comfortable place to rest.

Hess said her family returned home and was upgraded to first class seats, but the issue is not the money. Rather it's "the sheer lack of empathy for a sick disabled child and for my parents who were living one of every parent’s worst nightmares," adding that it raises questions about the airline's procedures for providing accommodations for a disabled person.

She said her family is not interested in compensation or free flights, but that their hope is that Alaska Airlines can rectify the situation by becoming a leader in ensuring they have policies and procedures to protect disabled persons.

Alaska Airlines did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Patch.

In a statement to NBC News, an airline spokeswoman said the family was not able to depart on their original flight because the child was visibly ill.

"Out of an abundance of caution the agent determined that the child was not fit to fly," the spokeswoman said. "In the case of a medical-related situation, it is safer for guests to be treated on the ground, as our crew are not trained medical professionals."

Hess said the airline did reach out to them but only after reporters became involved.

Alaska Airlines' policy for those traveling with developmental and intellectual disabilities states:

"We are happy to escort those who need help to and from the aircraft and between gates. However, we do not have an adult assistance program in which continual care is provided."

A statement attributed to the family posted to Hess' Twitter account reiterated that the family was not looking for anything and it was not just about getting kicked off the flight but the terrible treatment after the fact.

"We hope that sharing our story can be a catalyst to a larger conversation about disability discrimination and disability rights," the statement said. "In this divided country, we hope that we can come together to stand against disability discrimination."

Photo courtesy Meaghan Hess