Gold Star Family Booed for Being Allowed to De-board Plane Early
I would hope these passengers would have showed some better respect if they knew the “special military family” were in fact a gold-star family. Regardless I have been on many flights where people who needed to catch connecting flights were allowed to de-board early to catch their flights and have never heard of anyone booing them:
The father of a soldier who was killed last weekend in Afghanistan was disappointed and hurt after airline passengers booed him and his family as they flew to meet his son’s remains.
Stewart Perry, an ex-Marine who lives in Stockton, said the ordeal left him feeling disrespected.
“It was really disgusting on the passengers’ part,” he said Friday.
His son, Sgt. John Perry, was one of two killed in an explosion at a United States airbase on Nov. 12. He was honored at a memorial service in Lodi on Thursday and will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery. (……….)
Stewart Perry said he, his wife, Kathy, and daughter were flying on an American Airlines flight from Sacramento on Monday to Philadelphia, with a quick transfer in Phoenix. From Philadelphia, they traveled to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to receive his son’s remains.
For unknown reasons, Perry said, the flight to Phoenix was 45 minutes late. The crew feared the delay might cause the Perrys miss their connecting flight.
So, when the plane landed in Phoenix, the captain made an announcement for all passengers to remain seated and to let a “special military family” exit the aircraft first, Perry said.
Several passengers in first class began to boo and complain, Perry said.
“Some people were saying ‘This is just baloney,’ and ‘I paid for first-class for this?’ ”
He said American Airlines “did everything they could” to accommodate his family. [RecordNet.com]
You can read the rest at the link.
Maybe they didn’t know. I’ll give the complainers the benefit of the doubt.
This is the sort of thing that would ruin careers if caught on video, though!
I was kind of hoping this click-bait wouldn’t of ended up on here but…
A few people making sounds of disapproval isn’t the same as “Booed” as pretty much every outlet that ran this story made it seem. Like the entire cabin in unison emitted a grievous bellow of disgust throwing soggy half-eaten airline sandwiches at the family while some even chanted “Iran #1, Russia #1, USA… hook-tooey!”.
If you’re going to ramp a story up for clicks at least do it right… I like the Iron Sheik reference I tossed in there for the older heads myself. 😉
A lot of details aren’t clear.
If the flight’s primary route was from Sacramento to Philadelphia then it is likely many of the other passengers were concerned about missing that Phoenix transfer. When first class passengers are paying something like a $1000 premium for their tickets I can understand how they would be unhappy about economy ticket passengers cutting ahead of them for no more explanation than they are a “special military family.”
BTW. Aren’t we in the post-political correctness era? Isn’t everyone now allowed to express exactly what they feel?
Back when the wars were raging, I can remember the captain coming on the loud speaker and requesting everyone to remain seated until after those in uniform had gotten off the plane … and no one (not even those in 1st class) expressed any disapproval. In fact, a lot of people cheered and expressed thanks.
“BTW. Aren’t we in the post-political correctness era? Isn’t everyone now allowed to express exactly what they feel?”
Only if you feel some liberal intolerance.
Settle down. Trump has only heen president-elect for a couple weeks.
Let’s wait a year and see if selectively-repressive political correctness is replaced by a rude verbal free-for-all from all sides or relative politeness mixed with fearless truth when necessary..