A group of 101 students and eight chaperones from a high school in New York boarded an AirTran plane bound for Atlanta early Monday morning in preparation for their senior trip. But the flight crew kicked the entire group off the plane before it ever took off.
Cause: persistent cellphone use and roaming students, according to the airline.
Yeshiva of Flatbush school officials do not believe the flight crew had grounds to toss the group from the 6 a.m. flight, but the school’s investigation is ongoing.
“Preliminarily, it does not appear that the action taken by the flight crew was justified,” Yeshiva Executive Director Seth Linfield said in a statement released Tuesday.
According to Southwest Airlines, the parent company to AirTran, students from the Brooklyn-based Orthodox Jewish high school would not remain in their seats or stop using their cell phones. They were asked “several times,” according to a statement from AirTran.
“Both are violations of Federal Air Regulations, as well as our policies,” AirTran said.
But Yeshiva teacher Marian Wielgus told CNN that while some students may have had “to be told twice” to obey the flight crew, “They certainly did not do what the stewardess was claiming they did.”
One student said he hadn’t even been given the chance to turn off his cellphone before a flight attendant asked him to leave the plane, according to CNN.
Students and chaperones expressed their shock over the incident on Twitter.
“Yes we got kicked off the plane to Atlanta,” one student wrote. “Who knew Southerners could be so mean.”
Despite lingering doubts, the school “will continue to speak with chaperones and students and reach out to Southwest Airlines to determine the facts,” Linfield said in his statement.
Linfield also said the school does “acknowledge that Southwest Airlines has offered vouchers for future air travel to faculty and students.”
Southwest also put the travelers on other flights into Atlanta on Monday, but the group had to be split up for the remainder of its 12-hour travel time.
Some students had a layover in Wisconsin.
“Welcome to Atlanta, I mean Milwaukee,” a chaperon tweeted during the layover. “Senior Trip continues!”
The seniors did eventually reach Atlanta and even visited the World of Coke, according to tweets.
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