Stuck Inside of Phoenix With the Southwest Blues Again

Our sympathies are divided on this one.

On the one hand, man would it suck to be flying back to Seattle with Little Miss Seattlest and booted off the plane in—of all godforsaken airports—Phoenix. We'd hate to rely on food from police officers, the kindness of Motel 6, and $2000 return tickets on Alaska Airlines. (Nothing wrong with Alaska, but a lot wrong with $2000.)

That's what happened to Wendy Slaughter, a woman flying to Seattle from Detroit on Southwest Airlines. She, her four kids, and her pregnant sister were booted from their flight during a layover in Phoenix.

Of course, there's a reason. Southwest phrased it this way: "They were being disruptive and unruly on the plane, and for the safety of our customers and the flight crew, we decided to not allow them to travel on to Seattle at that time. Typically if it's a threatening behavior, it's not safe to travel 30,000 feet in the air in a contained environment."

And Slaughter herself phrased it this way: "The children were out of control on the flight you know, they were restless, excited and worked up and they are kids.”

Suddenly our sympathies swing towards Southwest—and the dozens of other people on that flight who suffered through Slaughter's admittedly out-of-control kids.

But then our sympathies get nudged again: One of Slaughter's kids is autistic, and another has cerebral palsy.

We certainly don't envy her having to shepherd four kids through two long-ass plane flights. But next time? Try a DVD player.

Slightlynorth shared "Inbound Flight" in our Flickr pool. Many, many thanks!