Autistic child kicked off flight

This is an unbelievable story. It would also make you think we live in old communist Russia, not a country priding itself for valuing diversity.

Yes, a mother and her child were kicked off an American Eagle flight because she “wasn’t able to control her toddler.”

According to ABC Eyewitness News, the mother says she was “doing all she could to calm the autistic boy,” but got “no sympathy from the flight crew.”

The flight attendant kept coming over and tugging the kid’s seatbelt to make it tighter. He, in turn, kept wiggling around and trying to get out of his seatbelt. And, according to the mother, the flight attendant kept coming over, reprimanding him, and yelling at him until he got really upset and started rolling around on the floor. At which point, everyone involved lost it.

Then, the pilot apparently made an announcement that there was a woman and her child on the plane and the child is uncontrollable. He turned the plane around and headed back to the terminal.

American Airlines (American Eagle’s parent), of course, had a different story. They said the mother was pitching a “raging fit” and refused to comply with FAA regulations.

My question is: what did the other passengers do? Did they try to help the mother? Did they offer to wait until the child settles down? Or, do we live in a world where independent judgment and flexibility have vanished?