Family Brings Service Dog On Flight, Something Horrible Happens

A Charlotte, North Carolina, mother spoke out after she and her disabled son were kicked off a flight because of the boy’s service dog.

Bryant Weasel was with his mother, Amy, and his service dog, Chug, when the incident occurred. Bryant has Dravet Syndrome, which causes many different types of seizures.

“Every type of seizure that you can possibly have, he has — and this particular syndrome is resistant to most pharmaceutical medications,” Weasel said of her son’s syndrome. Chug accompanies him wherever he goes in case a seizure is about to occur.

“He’s able to detect seizures before they happen and then he’s able to assist when he’s actually having a seizure,” she said. 

Weasel said she and her family planned a trip to Myrtle Bach, so she called American Airlines in advance to arrange for Chug to come along.

“We flew from Evansville to Charlotte and then from Charlotte to Myrtle Beach on November 2 with absolutely no problems whatsoever,” she told WFAA.

The family headed home on Thanksgiving Day and encountered problems when they were approached by a flight attendant.

“The flight attendant came up to me and told me I couldn’t sit there,” she said. The family complied with the attendant’s request and moved to a different row.

“And at that time she told me the dog could not be sitting, that the dog had to be under the seat,” Weasel said. 

The family tried to get Chug under the seat, but the flight attendant wasn’t satisfied. She called management, who kicked the family off the flight. They ended up spending Thanksgiving in Charlotte attempting to get on another flight.

“It was just very unfortunate that this flight attendant was not trained in knowing how to accommodate people with special needs,” Weasel said. 

After the story went public, American Airlines issued a statement acknowledging the incident. 

“We are aware of this issue and apologize to the passenger. Our customer relations team is reaching out to the passenger directly. We are looking into the issue with PSA Airlines, the regional carrier who operated that flight,” the airline’s statement read.

Readers across the Internet spoke out against the airline and expressed their disgust with the incident.

“This makes me so damn mad, that flight attendant should be fired from her job. That is a embarrassment to that young man! But most of all to any person with a service animal,” one Newsiosity reader commented on the site’s Facebook page.

“A service dog can go anywhere for it’s trained and this boy needs him for her to tell the family they had to leave the plane is wrong. I was taught this in business college classes as well it is against the law for anyone to not let the service dog be with the owner. I have trained dogs as service animals. Sue the hell out of them,” another added. 

Sources: WFAA, Newsiosity/Facebook / Photo credit: WFAA