Palo Alto High School students say they share the international outrage generated by high profile incidents involving several large airlines in the past month.
Just yesterday, a Southern California family were kicked off an overbooked Delta flight because they refused to give up a seat that their two-year old occupied, according to the Schear family.
According to freshman Edward Wang, the video evidence from April 10 regarding a United Airlines case which showed a Chinese passenger being violently dragged from his seat clearly demonstrated that United Airlines was at fault.
“It was clear that the man was knocked unconscious from hitting his head on the arm rest after being dragged from his seat,” Wang said. “The video evidence crossed the line for many people’s moral boundaries and it’s talked about all over the Internet.”
Sophomore Colby Perlman agreed with Wang’s sentiment.
“They [United Airlines] definitely made a huge mistake and I can see why people on social media are outraged,” Perlman said. “Honestly, it was a terrible approach to the situation.”
“After seeing the video with the man on the flight, I feel more uncomfortable since I frequently fly United,” Perlman said.
According to sophomore Rohan Maheshwaran, the violent removal conducted by the security officers was way over the line.
“I thought the decision that United Airlines made to bring in the police was unjustified especially since the person involved was innocent,” Maheshwaran said.
Right after the attention given to United was starting to dissolve, Delta Airlines reignited the topic of treatment of airplane passengers on April 26 by kicking a man off a flight according to USA Today.
Sophomore Kendrick Liem said the Delta Airlines case, where a man was kicked off the aircraft along with all other passengers when he had decided to use the restroom after a one hour standby on the airplane, was indicative of a trend.
“Why am I not surprised that this happened again?” Liem said. “These negative airline stories are becoming more frequent, and I think, at some point, new rules need to be imposed in order to prevent inconveniences for people.”
According to sophomore Claire Chen, the American Airlines case on April 22, about a mother of 15-month-old twins left in tears and shock after a flight attendant’s actions was disgusting.
“All citizens should be treated fairly especially since they paid for their own tickets,” Chen said.
“Airlines are in a crisis right now and they need to change their policies in order to satisfy their paying customers,” sophomore Ori Nirpaz said. “As a person who flies long distances frequently, airlines need to make us feel more comfortable and secure.”
