But if it were unsafe, it would be unprofessional to use it on the airplane.
Choose a side. Flying by comittee? By feeling?
Looks like rules were followed. Totally bigotry.
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I saw that story too. Is it relevant in any way at all?
Argue that at the gate, not with the flight crew. Arguing with flight crew is a safety risk.
Sounds like THE risk in this case.
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She was the boss, but told the flight crew what to do. An example.
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@AcerPlatanoides is giving a master class on the one weird trick bigots use to hide their racism.
Pay attention, class!
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If it involves having your car torn apart and then left in pieces by the side of the road when nothing incriminating is found, yeah, itâs totally unreasonable to complain. Or if you get stopped and then beaten by several cops without evidence. Or any of thousands of other abuses of power that nonetheless happen regularly.
That whole âCaptain and master under godâ thing has a flip side: if you screw up, you have no excuses. None.
PS: Once upon a time I was aboard a United flight out over the Atlantic and was called to handle a medical emergency. Captain had to make the decision whether to continue to the planned landing in Schiphol, land short in Ireland, Iceland, whatever, or turn back to Logan. He turned back, and the passengers spent the night on the floor there. His call â and however it turned out, Iâm not complaining about his decision.
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They were removed for arguing about being removed?
Is that some kind of âarrested for resisting arrestâ sophistry?
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Ah, I thought you were comparing her case to the one in the OP, which wouldnât make much sense.
It sounds like you are a little bit desperate to prove thereâs no such thing as racism. I would suggest you spend your considerable gifts on something more useful. Hypothetically speaking, if there was such a thing as racism, I think we would all agree it was a bad thing. It would probably be a huge uphill battle to end it. If any people were engaged in this hypothetical fight, they might welcome your help.
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AcerPlatanoides:
Whining in the face of authority you voluntarily sumbitted to. People do it.
Crying when pulled over,
Those non-white people do so much âwhiningâ and âcrying.â Why canât those people just be âobjective,â âlogical,â and ârational,â like white people always are?
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If the car seat was a flight safety issue on that flight, it would have been a flight safety issue on any flight, right? So did anyone (like the airline staff at the gate, who would have seen the family lugging the child safety seat onto the plane) inform the family of that safety issue before they got on the flight? If not, why not?
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And even over and above that, why isnât the response âThatâs not safe, please stow it / weâll check it for youâ followed up with âthis is how itâs safely doneâ
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clickondetroit.com Arab-American family kicked off flight for 'safety of flight issueâ
http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/arab-american-family-kicked-off-flight-for-safety-of-flight-issue
/Video link
Another thing I keep coming back to is, âletâs assume they were an average white familyâ. How would we be viewing this incident? It would seem that regardless of their visible ethnicity, this family got disgraceful service from the airline.
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It was apparently a super-secret-not-racist-anti-Muslim thing. It would have been really easy for the pilot or the attendant to say âItâs because that seat isnât compliantâ, but they adamantly refused to say so in the video. Thatâs totally weird because the car seat regs are usually pretty much ignored and it would be cool if somebody actually cared for once.
Or they could be lying about the seat thing and either the pilot or the attendant should let somebody who can act like a civilized adult have that job. That fits the evidence a lot better.
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I traveled with a car seat for my son at least ten times and was never thrown off a flight. Of course, I also got singled out by TSA for a special search each time because an adult male traveling alone with a toddler fits the profile for drug courier.
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Alas, bigots have a lot of tricks up their (white, baggy) sleeves.
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Racism-disliker here, longtime radical liberal, etc⌠long pedigree.
I assume from the tone of this thread that Iâm going to get slammed, but here it is anyhow: like AcerPlatanoides, I too cannot see the video, facebook says itâs down/gone/unavailable; maybe that will change, I donât know.
Having not seen the video, there is not enough information here to conclude whether racism was a reasonable interpretation of things here or not. Yes we have the fact that Corey chose to post this article, and believe me I love Corey and all that he does, but every so often there are a few things Iâve looked at closely and thought, âmmm, yeah, Corey, Iâd pull that one back.â Not saying thatâs necessarily the case here, just making the point that Corey posting this is not per se enough.
AcerPlatanoides is, in my opinion, raising reasonable questions⌠and, reasonably, makes the point that while racism does exist, sometimes itâs overplayed. And he/she acknowledges that the video is nowhere to be found at the moment and so some suspension of disbelief may be called for.
That AcerPlatanoides exhibited irritation when dogpiled upon does not disprove the merit of remaining open minded about his.
Iâve been dogpiled on before here too, and the surge of self-righteousness can be mighty. Lemme say it for the record: racism is real, it sucks, and I look for opportunities to bring it down. But we (I refer to people who dislike racism) have to be careful not to alienate our own kind; all too often, being âin the rightâ emboldens people to yell loudly in a big group, and when they trample one of their own kind in the doing, they often donât feel they have to self-examine and take responsibility. And â like racism â THAT sucks too.
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Iâve been trying to make sense of this story and so far the pieces just donât fit. Iâm not one to immediately jump on the âOMG! Racist!â bandwagon but it certainly seems that this family was at the very least profiled for their Muslim appearance.
This Chicago Tribune story talks about how the family tried to gate check the car seat in question but was instructed to bring it on the plane. But when they asked for a seatbelt extension they were told to stow the seat instead. It appears that clear instructions were not provided about what is approved and what isnât and the flight attendants were less than helpful in trying to positively resolve the situation. Instead they immediately defaulted to âkick them off the planeâ mode.
According the FAA website, there are 2 types of approved child restraint systems- one is the more traditional hardshell car seat used for infants and the other is a strap-based system called CARES used for toddlers. I am guessing itâs this 2nd system the family inquired about that the flight attendant claimed no knowledge of. It also appears that the seat in question is actually a booster seat - not an infant seat.
http://www.faa.gov/passengers/fly_children/
https://www.united.com/web/en-US/content/travel/specialneeds/infants/default.aspx
The following child restraint devices may not be used on board the
aircraft: booster seats, belly belts attached to adult seat belts only,
and vests or harnesses that hold the infant to the adultâs chest.
The United website does specifically state that booster seats are not allowed which may be the crux of the issue here. Iâm guessing the parents were not aware that a car booster seat is not airline approved. Realistically, how many people would honestly know that a booster seat approved for car use is not approved for flight use? I certainly didnât until I looked it up.
But then why does the captain insist on deplaning the family after they offer to stow the booster seat in question? Why not attempt to explain the âsafety issueâ and help them stow the seat and be done with it? I watched the videos and the parents do not appear to be combative while the flight attendant and pilot do not seem to offer much explanation either. Something just doesnât smell right.
All together the story being told by the airline about âsafety issueâ doesnât appear to hold up as Iâve personally witnessed countless families with kids of all ages - with and without car seats - allowed to fly and never questioned. Iâve seen parents struggle with all kinds of car seat contraptions and usually the flight attendants are helpful and accommodating. Iâve never seen anyone kicked off because of a non-FAA approved seat. Maybe there was a series of events that happened prior to the camera being turned on but based on what I saw I canât help but believe that if the family were of a lighter skin persuasion that the outcome would probably have been different.
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Liked seven times, only counted once. 
But basically, this. Beautifully said and really brings it all together.
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Yeah because when someoneâs bag doesnât fit in the overhead bin you kick their whole family off the plane.
If the kidâs seat was a problem, why didnât they just throw it in the undercarriage?
Why were the police called?
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