On Friday a video was uploaded to YouTube of a lady being removed from a United Express flight between Salt Lake City and Chicago, after allegedly refusing to put her dog back in its carrier. Apparently the plane returned to the gate to offload her, though she wasn’t aware that was going to happen… and she responds accordingly.
Here’s the description of the video:
She wouldn’t put her growling dog in its carrier, got belligerent with the flight attendant, and assaulted a cop (so we were told). I’m guessing she won’t be flying anytime soon.
And here’s the video:
I’m hard pressed to decide what my favorite quote from the video is. There are so many good options to choose from:
- “I want my money back before I get off this plane” (apparently the police now works in the refunds department at United)
- “This is the worst airplane I have ever been” (it looks to me like a pretty new Embraer jet… really?)
- “I’m not going to jail, mister… you’re looking to the wrong lady”
- “Don’t you take my dog you louse”
- “You take my dog and I’m going to sue this country like you’ve never seen”
Or perhaps the screaming in the last 15 seconds of the video, which sounds insane. Goodness gracious!
Some people…
She was subsequently taken off the flight but not without an argument first. The person who filmed the video, a Mr Adownie, later uploaded it to YouTube and subtitled it saying that her dog had been 'growling and snapping at the crew.
This is why there should be a "NO FLY LIST"
It is a privilege, not a right to fly across the country in 5 hours at 35k feet.
Any airline should be able to put ANY individual on "the list" for cause.
You just can't fix stupid.
@Kelly - I think the police needed to get her off in a hurry (rather than take the time to calm her down) because it was costing the airline thousands of dollars for every minute they delayed. It would also be messing around with landing schedules (and then take-off schedules) at the other end.
The real victim in this is the old guy seated next to her who is probably the husband. He didn't say a thing to shut her up, probably because she cut his balls off sometime around 1965 and has been bossing him around in the same manner as she treated the cops and United staff ever since. I'd like to think he got a little satisfaction out of hearing her screaming, but I could be wrong.
Like I always say, people in this country and their dogs :-P
This is truly sad, and don't find it hilarious. Not because of perceived mental issues, just sad that people in her life along the way enabled her to become this type of person. I felt most badly for the dog (aggression aside) as it will be separated from the owner while she's taken to jail. It's the innocent victim in this.
All of the internet making fun of her, hilarious, whatever - what does that...
This is truly sad, and don't find it hilarious. Not because of perceived mental issues, just sad that people in her life along the way enabled her to become this type of person. I felt most badly for the dog (aggression aside) as it will be separated from the owner while she's taken to jail. It's the innocent victim in this.
All of the internet making fun of her, hilarious, whatever - what does that say about us? Do we have nothing better than to kick someone when they're already down (arrested)? I don't see where visceral comments serves anybody in a constructive way.
Her behavior notwithstanding, I do feel the officers could have handled it differently with a better outcome (with her still being removed from the flight - as she should have been).
"You are holding up the entire plane"
her response is " I don't care"
I saw some comments defense this lady has mental issue, well, I don't think so.
Most likely an Emotional Support Animal and not a service dog. Emotional support animal can pretty much be anything, but it still needs to behave and follow the rules.
Service Animals are normally trained very well and are not snappy at people.
@HORACE,
I'm pretty sure the Obama and republican comments are jokes. (ie Everything is Obama's fault!). I know it can be hard to tell when reading the internet.
My point about the support animal was simply that the animal was not required to be in a carrier. I wasn't making a judgment about whether people abuse the system or not. Even if the woman was blind and had a legitimate service animal, the flight crew could still kick her off if the animal was aggressive.
Wow - noncompliant, belligerent, somewhat threatening lady! Was she tazed, held down with knee on neck, killed?? Absolutely not!
Hmmm - I wonder why?
My next question to the flight attendant: "Excuse me, do you mind if I spread out in those empty seats?"
Count me in on the side that finds this sad and not funny. I wonder how many people here who are diagnosing her as either mentally ill or just a PITA are actually trained and licensed mental health workers or psychiatrists.
I'm an internist so can't claim to make a diagnosis either way. But I would certainly refer someone like this to a mental health professional.
@Tom, you realize that these "emotional support" animals exemptions are widely and wildly abused, right?
I know of someone who has claimed that her French Bull Dogs are required for her emotional support when she travels and received a physician's note for same, and she is one of the toughest individuals that I know.
I think that those who wish to believe that the woman is mentally ill would prefer to see that the world...
@Tom, you realize that these "emotional support" animals exemptions are widely and wildly abused, right?
I know of someone who has claimed that her French Bull Dogs are required for her emotional support when she travels and received a physician's note for same, and she is one of the toughest individuals that I know.
I think that those who wish to believe that the woman is mentally ill would prefer to see that the world does not contain self-centered individuals, but unfortunately it does. That is why a follow-up on this would be most enlightening, for all concerned.
Finally, regardless of one's political feelings, it was a dumb thing to bring politics into this -- if the woman is a self-centered individual -- as I suspect from the rampant abuse of these sorts of "support animals) -- then it matters not who she voted for, I know of fools on both sides of the political spectrum.
If she is, indeed mentally ill, then she was unstable and needed to be removed from the plane.
Unfortunately, these types of incidents are becoming all too common. What about that idiotic Chicago area photographer who was drunk and who just upped and punched a fellow passenger -- he was escorted from the plane, but what was the disposition of his case -- being drunk is no defense to any sort of criminal or civil complaint.
Yes, it may mitigate damages, but then again, do we really wish for these sorts of incidents to multiply more and inconvenience the flying public more? Do we really wish to see the airlines take an unnecessary hit to their bottom line which will translate for the rest of us into higher ticket prices?
I think not and one way to ensure this does not occur is to start making examples who break the rules -- that is how deterrence works.
The animal is clearly a service or emotional support animal since they were sitting in the bulkhead. I think the rules state that these types of animals don't need to stay in a carrier, but they do have to be well behaved. The crew was well within their rights to remove the passenger if the animal was aggressive.
It annoys me greatly to see non-disabled people (being a dickhead is not a disability folks) abusing reasonable adjustment provisions meant for those who truly require them just to get by. This "support animal" explosion is one, so's people scamming disability parking permits (or worse, parking in those spaces without one at all) or using wheelchair assistance for the chronic condition of sloth.
This reminds me of all the recent articles about why people who look like me, (take a wild guess as I'm half Italian half Polish), who commit crimes are often (mis)perceived as 'mentally ill' while everyone else is branded a terrorist or a thug. Mainstream media is odd that way I guess.
http://www.salon.com/2015/06/18/its_not_about_mental_illness_the_big_lie_that_always_follows_mass_shootings_by_white_males/
typical behavior of low information Republican
Typical behavior of low information Obama voter?
@lopere: No, this isn't mental illness we see here...unless selfishness and refusing to follow the rules is now a new mental disease. I've not perused the latest DSM, so it very well may be now.
Love how the dude recording the video rats out the person in the back that may be traveling with the people, then laughs about the whole thing at the end of the video. Why did you wait until after they were escorted off the plane to laugh at them? Grow a set and say/laugh at them while they're there or keep it to yourself. Her actions were obviously not right, but what do you gain...
Love how the dude recording the video rats out the person in the back that may be traveling with the people, then laughs about the whole thing at the end of the video. Why did you wait until after they were escorted off the plane to laugh at them? Grow a set and say/laugh at them while they're there or keep it to yourself. Her actions were obviously not right, but what do you gain from laughing at / filming filming her and then posting it to youtube? Jesus, what a schmuck!
While it's almost heartwarming to see people jumping to this woman's defense by claiming that she's mentally ill, I think you're only doing that because you can't accept the fact that some people are just rude, entitled a**holes with no mental illness attached...possible personality disorder, but not a clinical, mental illness that makes them incapable of appropriately governing themselves in a public setting. Some people are just jerks.
But as they all say....."it's my support animal".
Fine let them support you in the carrier where they belong.
It's a small enough plane as it is.
And she was in the bulkhead seat knowing she had to put the dog in the carrier ?
Clueless.
Oh man, another self-centered, whining, wing nut without any self control. These people need to be fined or thrown in jail for a night for wasting everyone's time, money and energy because of their selfish entitlement. It's getting worse and worse. One hopes people didn't miss their connections because of this idiot.
BTW @Iopere - Your comment is just ridiculous and insults people with cancer. Can't believe anyone could say something like that.
I think she's fine, no mental issues. She is just like this, she doesn't accept the rules and she can't live by them. Trust me, whatever happens to her she will blame all this on someone else. There're people like her, I know some and they don't have any mental issues.
Very sad.
Hope this woman gets help; clearly she has issues that need to be addressed.
Very sad indeed.
Do we know the name of this idiot and are there any news reports for a follow up?
I really wish the courts would get tough on these sorts of people.
I like her screaming "you're breaking my arm" once they take her off.
For those of you that think this is "hilarious" - do you also stand outside of a cancer ward and laugh at the patients?
This woman obviously has a mental sickness. People that are sick aren't "hilarious" in my opinion.
Police now *work*
This is hilarious!!