Looking for perspective ....
 

I'm a UAL pilot and my friends/neighbors shared this story with me....I thought I would throw it out there for some perspective....

Family of 4 traveling out of PHX on Southwest....the flight attendant decided to remove their nine year old daughter because she didn't look well... Her mom admitted that she had been ill and thrown up earlier in the day. Dad and son remained on the plane leaving mom and daughter behind....(this was the last flight of the day necessitating a hotel room)...Mom was told that a medical clearance would be required to fly....So, mom is told to take her into the airport walk-in clinic. An hour after the flight she was supposed to be on has departed she has a medical clearance for her daughter in hand. Cost $150. Since there are no flights available that evening they stay at an airport hotel and next morning get on the first available flight. When they check in for the flight the next morning there is no mention of, or request for a medical clearance.

So far they have made no requests for reimbursement and it seems they handled the situation in a very low key cooperative manner.
I know over the years I have seen some pretty feeble individuals board my aircraft and the idea of questioning someone's health and sending them for a medical clearance seems entirely foreign to me. Is this something that could be considered policy at Southwest ...? Or does it sound more like rogue decision making by a select few...?

Thanks for any input you might provide....

Happens on a regular basis. All airlines can and will do this. Gate agents and F/A's are using their judgement to prevent an airborne medical situation. Not a perfect system but not much in life is. No hotel or compensation is provided in these situations. Hope they got home ok and feel better.

Thoughts on this story...
 

My neighbors returned from a trip the other day and shared this story....Given recent events I thought it was surprising to hear...

Family of 4 traveling out of LAS on Southwest....the flight attendant (and then the gate agent) decided to remove their nine year old daughter because she didn't look well... Her mom admitted that she had been ill and thrown up earlier in the day. Dad and son remained on the plane leaving mom and daughter behind....(this was the last flight of the day necessitating a hotel room)...Mom was told that a medical clearance would be required to fly....So, mom is told to take her into the airport walk-in clinic. An hour after their original flight has departed she has a medical clearance for her daughter in hand. Cost $150. Since there are no flights available that evening they stay at an airport hotel and next morning get on the first available flight. When they check in for the flight the next morning there is no mention of, or request for a medical clearance.

So far they have made no requests for reimbursement and it seems they handled the situation in a very low key cooperative manner.
I know over the years I have seen some pretty feeble individuals board my aircraft and the idea of questioning someone's health and sending them for a medical clearance seems entirely foreign to me.

Does it seem within reason to take a child off of an aircraft against her parents wishes because she is looking uncomfortable....?

I ran this across the SW pilot forum and didn't get much response....though one guy said "airlines can and will do this to avoid inflight medical emergencies". I guess I just haven't seen it...
Can you imagine for example....going to CUN or Cabo and questioning the health of all the hungover people, or the ones who that drank the water.... We would probably leave half of them behind.


Thanks for any input you might provide....

Well Southwest could have called medlink at the gate and cleared her that way. At least where i work thats what we do. Otherwise youre at the airlines mercy. Best to look chipper, don't make eye contact and keep your mouth shut till pushback if you are having a bad day!

I wish gate agents would have pulled the two people off that died on my flights this year (2 separate flights). In both cases, neither had any business being onboard an aircraft and (probably) would have lived had they been closer to a hospital. With limited resources airborne there's only so much you can do, especially when flying over the Pacific with hours to the nearest divert airport.

Agents obviously aren't healthcare professionals, nor should they be required to play that part. However, they do have the very appropriate ability to deny service if there's a concern about passenger safety or public health. Think about how a how bad a passenger must look for that concern to be raised, it goes far beyond the obvious like a too-short skirt or offensive t-shirt.

It sounds like the issue isn't making sure the kid was OK, but SWA's inability to flag the reservation with the fit to fly requirement?

Medlink for a passenger in the gate area? Really? Never heard of that, most agents would call the paramedics at the airport and I've never heard of a crew getting involved with someone not on the airplane. Odd.

Yeah the crew is not involved but if the passenger is on the plane and there is a health concern (such as in this case where the SW flight attendant did not like what she saw) we have the gate agent call Medlink to clear them. Ive had it go both ways, sometimes they say the pax is good to go, sometimes they are not. They can obviously call while in the gate area as well, but like most gate agents, they tend to let it all get boarded and let the sick person, drunk, etc play peek a boo with the Flight Attendant to be found fit to fly.

Definitely an inexact science, I think the intent of the policy is sound but sure, some may be inconvenienced "out of an abundance of caution". Not sure how to fix that. I can tell you that it really sucks to have a passenger die on your flight, especially when it's preventable.

Awax

I was on a dh flight out of Denver. It was a United flight. Lady passed out literally into me and I helped lay her down on the floor and then had a cSR walking by call Medlink. They have a different number but same place just they handle it differently since you are on the ground and do not have access to the same medical equipment. They also coordinate to get paramedics. Also at my last job (Jetblue) we had a flight attendant tell us about a sick passenger in the back of the plane. The gate agent said they were fine and they wanted an on time departure. Captain called Medlink and they worked him through the process to determine if they could go flying. Medlink offers a ton of services.....we just think of the ones that they teach us about.

Please post your monthly schedule here. I don't want to fly with you.