On January 14th, Julie and Gerry Kulesza and their daughter Ella were removed from an Airtran flight from Ft. Myers to Boston. Ella refused to take her seat before takeoff, and the flight was delayed fifteen minutes already and the crew made an operational decision to remove the family. The Kuleszas think that Airtran went overboard, and they just needed a little more time to calm the girl down. The family flew home the next day, and the family was reimbursed $595.80, the cost of the tickets, and given three roundtrip tickets to wherever Airtran flies. However, they have said they will never fly the carrier again.
Elsewhere, Erin Callahan Lambert, age 28, was taken into custody on the 21st upon arrival into San Francisco International Airport on a United Airlines flight from Boston. About halfway through the flight, Lambert got up, walked to the back, and began talking on her cellphone. When the flight attendants asked her to turn the phone off and return to her seat, she was not cooperative. When she was asked who she was talking to, she allegedly said, “I’m calling 911 because the plane is being hijacked.” She returned to her seat eventually, but later tried to take her luggage, including her dog in a pet carrier, to the restroom. When told to leave her belongings at her seat, she said, “No, you are going to have to kill me and my dog…” and then locked herself in the lavatory. Finally…she was stopped as she headed for the cabin door, saying she was going to leave the aircraft. She was handcuffed, and when she managed to wiggle free of the handcuffs…she was secured with plastic ties. During the entire time, she was yelling profanities, cursing, and spitting. She was turned over to the police at SFO.
