Cebu Pacific hit for refusing 'special child' passenger

ABS-CBN Website, News & Current Affairs DepartmentCebu Pacific hit for refusing 'special child' passengerBy Jeff Canoy, ABS-CBN News | 01/07/2010 12:01 PMMANILA, Philippines - Budget airline Cebu Pacific may face civil and criminal cases after reportedly refusing the entry on board of a special child.According to Marites Alcantara, the Gokongwei-led carrier's purser and cabin crew pressured her and her son, John Arvin, to get off the plane bound for Manila from Hong Kong.Alcantara said the crew members flatly told her that John Arvin is a special child and is banned from boarding Cebu Pacific planes, citing company rules."They have a manual daw. Bawal daw sumakay ang mga mentally ill...pilit nila kaming pinapababa na para kaming kriminal na kulang na lang ay hatakin palabas ng eroplano 'yong anak ko," she told ABS-CBN News.("They said they have a company manual, which states that mentally ill people are not allowed inside the plane...they pressured us to get out of the plane as if we were criminals.")John Arvin was diagnosed with Global Development Delay, a condition that delays a child's ability to acquire motor skills as fast as normal kids. Alcantara said she was insulted when the crew kept on calling her son "mentally ill" as they forced them to step out of the plane.Most of all, she said her son was humiliated because of the incident."Kahit sinong psychiatrist ang tanungin mo, walang mali sa anak ko. Hindi siya considered mentally ill...lumuluha na lang siya when they humiliated us. Ang sakit-sakit na nanay ka tapos pinoprotektahan mo anak mo, pero may gumaganyan sa kanya," Alcantara said.("You can ask any psychiatrist and they would all say that nothing is wrong with my child. He is not considered mentally ill. He was crying when they humiliated us. It really hurts for a mom when people treat her child like that.")Since Alcantara refused to leave the plane, Cebu Pacific's crew had no choice but to proceed with the flight. She urged the budget airline to take a second look at its policies and admit that these are discriminatory."Bawal ang ginawa nila according to Republic Act 7610. Protected di lamang ang special children kundi children mismo sa batas na iyon," said Atty. Salvador Panelo, Alcantara's lawyer.("What they did was not allowed, according to Republic Act 7610. That law not only protects special children, but all kids as well.")Cebu Pacific, meanwhile, has refused to grant an interview. Instead, the Gokongwei-led airline issued a statement of apology to the "affected passengers," saying that it is now finding ways to make sure that such an incident will not happen again."We deeply regret the incident, and we are looking at ways to make sure that this will not happen again in the future. We had apologized to the affected passengers who nonetheless traveled to Manila on the same flight," Cebu Pacific said.
as of 01/08/2010 4:12 PM

Main article's link: http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/business/01/07/10/cebu-pacific-hit-refusing-special-child-passengerMy reaction on the whole issue: DAMN BASTARDS!

Replying to #1

Agreed...those monster's will burn for such stupid policies...

yup, i totally agree. those the rejected the child should be sued and fired. the company should pay for moral damages...

Replying to #3

I think the staff need to be re-educated, and the company pay out big, why punish the staff for just following orders?

I can see why the policy exists; some mental conditions can make the passenger a threat to the safety of themselves or others. I think the issue is it is too broad and in this case was applied to a condition that it should not have been applied to.I know of something similar which happned to some of my schoolfriends in the UK, they were refused permission to board an aircraft, essentially because they are deaf. I'm not sure of the exact details, but it was something to do with the cabin crew believing they would be unable to communicate in an emergency and thus would pose a threat to other passengers. I'll ask someone who might know exactly what happened (not sure if he was involved or not from memory).

Replying to #5

I guess I let my emotions guide my resposne, that does seem a vaild point, and better understand why such a policy exist.I kinda doubt airline staff are trained to deal with people with disabilites.But in most cases...people with metal issues THAT bad don't fly alone-the person accompaning them would assist.But that is how I see it, and prehaps some disadvantaged people do fly alone...though even now I'd dislike to :(

I fly alone and rarely have any problems. Chicago O'Hare airport are absolutely incredible when it comes to disabilities. I've literally been escorted to the correct plane several times (because boarding involved walking out onto the tarmac where there were several planes waiting) and I always get boarded first. I don't recall having any issues at Johannesburg or Port Elizabeth either.Heathrow, unfortunately, does not have such a good record, despite being the largest international airport in the world. I always make myself known to the staff at the desk as a disabled passenger (Same at all airports, although on at least one occasion, Chicago O'Hare staff have realised I am disabled before I told them and have asked if I needed assistance), and sometimes I get pre-boarded and sometimes I get forgotten completely. (disabled passengers have to be pre-boarded). On one occasion, not only was I forgotten, but a disabled woman in a wheelchair was also forgotten, which very much annoyed me. If she had not had family with her, there is every possibility she would not have been boarded at all.As for airline staff being trained to deal with disabilities, they are. When I went to Barbados with one of my schoolfriends (who is also deaf), we were approached by one of the air hostesses, who informed us that she was trained in BSL (British Sign Language) if we needed assistance. She was somewhat disappointed to find that we both had perfect spoken English and neither of us could sign (we can understand it but know very little). I don't know if all airline staff attend deaf awareness courses, but I have never had any issues with staff onboard aircraft. The flight (as opposed to cabin) crew are hard to understand but thats generally down to the PA system not the crew themselves. The cabin crew always communicate in a deaf friendly/aware manner, (looking directly at me, speaking clearly and not covering their mouth). whether that is training or not I don't know. It probably is.

Replying to #7

Sounds like you had some good experinces :)Um...Kurt Fearnley (the man who did the Kokoda trail-a feat that is a worthy challenge for a normal person-let alone a wheel chair man who's crawling the whole 96km track) had some issues just flying back because his own wheel chair wasn't allowed, but the one they offered him he felt was an insult.He ended up suing the air line "Jet star" over what happened.http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/jetstar-apologises-to-paralympian-kurt-fearnley-over-wheelchair-row/story-e6frg6nf-1225803162226Australia ain't perfect, thaty is for sure :(I also heard about some story where a deaf/blind (forgot which) person who didn't understand english got lost in the terminals of another place...forgot where but I read this somewhere-it's just alot to search :(I think airline staff should be re-educated on how to deal with people with disabilities, and airlines could review their policies.(I will admit though-the wheel chair was better suited for the plane trip should something happen-but because i only heard bits and pieces of thr story I can't say it's totally the airline's fault...).But of course some airlines are better than other's in some areas :)

What's even more exasperating is that the airline company (Cebu Pacific) tried to bribe... err "compensate" them with "free" airline tickets/travel packages right after the mother (as well as her entire family) filed the complaint suit. Could you believe HOW SHALLOW the minds are of the administration of that airline?Oh & another thing, ever since this issue was brought up, other issues regarding "how bad" the services of that airline surfaced. One in particular is their falsely advertised "package tours". The child's grandmother was recently interviewed in a radio program I listen too & she told of an incident which is in a way tied to what happened to the family eventually.She said that she booked the Flight & the vacation package online, via Cebu Pacific's site. She signed up for a package tour that supposedly included hotel accommodation, airport to hotel shuttle services etcetera, but when she later re-checked the details of the package tour she paid for with Cebu Pacific's head offices she found out that the package was somewhat misleading. When they got to Hong Kong it seems the hotel venue was different from what was listed in their package & that there were no shuttle that greeted them :(

That isn't fair