A family based in California is planning to sue American Airlines for restricting them and their 16-year-old boy, with Down syndrome from using the flight service, citing the boy as a "flight risk."
The incident happened on Sept. 3 when Joan and Robert Vanderhorst of Bakersfield and their son Bede Vanderhorst were about to take a flight from Newark to Los Angeles.
"It's defamation," Robert Vanderhorst told the Daily News. "It's a violation of his civil rights and its defamation.
"Nothing like this has ever happened to us before. That's what's so shocking. He's usually our good luck charm. Good things usually happen when Bede is with us."
In a video filmed by Joan, the boy can be seen sitting calm and quiet, unaffected by the incident and playing with his cap.
According to the family, the boy has taken a minimum of 30 flights so far, without causing any trouble. So the couple was shocked when the pilot opposed the idea of Bede using the flight.
"He's behaving," Robert told KTLA. "He's demonstrating he's not a problem."
The boy was scheduled to travel in first class. According to the airlines, the boy was "excitable, running around, and not acclimated to the environment" and the pilot and other flight crew were concerned of the boy's seat close to the cockpit, KTLA reported.
Making the situation worse, the airlines employees called the police.
"It was horrible, humiliating. We were treated like criminals...One officer even told me to call our congressman and report the pilot," Robert told Daily News.
Later the family was allowed to take a full United Airlines flight, but were placed in the back row.
"My son cannot defend himself," Robert told the Daily News. "I expect that American Airlines will not give their pilots the ability to discriminate against anyone; gay, black disabled."
