Mother's fury after autistic son is kicked off flight
A mother says that she’s furious after her and her 21-year-old autistic son were kicked off a flight as staff claimed her son Nicco was “too violent”.
She spoke to Global News CA about the incident.
“He’s 21 but he’s mentally like a small child,” said Nicco Iavarone’s mother, Andrea Iavarone.
“So if a small child were on an airplane and had a little temper tantrum and hit and pulled their mother’s hair, would they kick that mother off the airplane? Because it was exactly like that.”
Andrea said that the airline staff were aware that Nicco was special needs as they let them pre-board under those circumstances.
As the plane left the runway, Nico started acting out and hitting Andrea as well as pulling her hair.
“He’s special needs. He’s non-verbal, so he doesn’t really have a way to voice what frustrates him — so sometimes you get moments of agitation where he gets a little bit frustrated,” said Andrea.
One flight attendant saw the incident and spoke to another attendant, where they quickly informed that “Nicco’s not going to be flying with them today”.
“They said, ‘He’s violent’ and ‘We’re worried for the safety of our passengers.’ I said, ‘How can you be that worried about the safety of other passengers?'” added Andrea, who said she was in disbelief.
“Then [the flight attendant] said, ‘We’re worried about your safety’ and I said, ‘I deal with this everyday and he’s fine once he gets up in the air. We’re going to be just fine,'” she said.
After expecting to speak to someone in charge, the attendant denied this request and the family were escorted off the plane.
The family were offered a credit with the airline, but nothing for the cost of Nicco’s ticket.
Gabor Lukacs with Air Passenger Rights was unhappy with the outcome.
“At best, from the airlines, this was a misunderstanding. At worst, this was a discrimination of a person with disabilities,” he said.
“The least they should’ve done once it was clear that this is not an unruly passenger but someone with mental disabilities, is make it as good as possible by putting them on the next available flight on whatever airline is available.”
After Andrea posted the story online, the airline has now refunded both tickets and hopes that the incident sparks change within the airline industry.
“He’s special needs. He doesn’t have a voice so I need to speak up and make people aware how they’re being treated,” she said. “Instead of making accommodations or trying to find ways to try and make the flight easier, they’re just deciding that they would rather not deal with him and have him off the plane.”