I Really Hope That Flight Wasn’t Really Diverted For Just A Movie Complaint

I know that when I see an article, I am not getting the full story. There are always other sides, other bits of information that are not included. That which is not included often makes a situation seem quite different from that which is included. I really hope this article about a plane being diverted over a movie complaint is just that kind of situation.

According to the article, a family was on a flight from Denver to Baltimore. The in-flight movie was Alex Cross, a movie they felt was more mature than their children should watch (we should all keep in mind that on many flights you can not listen to the in-flight movie by just not getting headphones, but it can be difficult sometimes not to see the movie…or to prevent your young children from seeing it if you care about such things). They asked for the movie to be turned off, and were informed this was not possible. The parents claimed that these discussions were all nice, no threats or raised voices or anything. However, the flight was suddenly diverted to Chicago…the crew apparently having reported a disturbance with a passenger. The family who had not been fond of the movie were taken off the plane at Chicago by police and put on a different flight to Baltimore.

I really hope that this isn’t the full story.

I mean, all we have is the family’s word that there were no threats, raised voices, or anything of the kind that would make the crew feel there was a real risk. However, if there isn’t more to the story, then we might be seeing a United policy that movie complaints are a security risk. I know that flight safety is a touchy business and I’d rather we proceed with an abundance of caution, but regarding movie complaints as security risks has got to be an extreme overreaction (presuming there isn’t more to this story).

Where would it end? “Miss? I didn’t get any peanuts.” Boom! Plane landed for security reasons. “Sir? the passenger in front of me is using the space under his seat for baggage so I have nowhere to put mine.” Boom! Federal marshals step in. “Excuse me? Could I get a pillow?” Boom! Banned forever from flying. “My tray table won’t stay up.” Boom! Passengers and crew wrestle the whiner to the ground and restrain him/her for the remainder of the flight.

Seriously? A movie complaint? I really hope there is more to this and either there was an actual unruly passenger totally separate from the anti-Alex Cross family or the anti-Alex Cross family drastically misrepresented how this went down. I really hope so. This just seems completely ridiculous.