Rachel Collier was removed from the Continental Airlines plane as it was about to leave Newark, N.J., for Honolulu earlier this week. She had fallen asleep after boarding the plane with about three dozen classmates and woke up coughing and gasping for breath as it was about to take off.
"Everyone was looking at me," she said. "I couldn't talk because I lost my voice coughing so much. I was panicking."
The flight attendants gave her water, and a doctor on the flight said she would be OK to make the 10-hour flight. But the captain returned the aircraft to the gate to drop off the girl and one of her teachers.
Rachel said she started crying when the captain told her to leave. She and the teacher finally made it home the next day.
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Teacher Maile Kawamura, a chaperone for the spring break trip to New York and Washington, D.C., said she was shocked. The two didn't know what to do or where to stay, she said. They finally found accommodations in New York and bought clothes and toiletries.
Continental said in a statement that Collier was coughing "uncontrollably" on the plane Tuesday and that "the captain felt he was acting in the best interest of the passenger and other passengers on the flight."
Rachel's mother, Stephanie Collier, said Continental has agreed to reimburse her daughter's expenses incurred during the extra day, including the cost of the hotel.
"I felt it was really extreme for a coughing fit," she said. "We've all had coughing fits."
IN OTHER NEWS
A woman passed through security screening at New York's LaGuardia Airport with a stun gun and knife in her purse — but later discovered the mistake herself and alerted authorities.
The woman realized she was carrying the items Saturday after a short layover in Detroit and on her way to Denver.
"She immediately went, 'Oh, my God, I'm not supposed to have these here,' and called the flight attendant over," said Spirit Airlines spokeswoman Laura Bennett.
The pilot alerted Denver International Airport; police met the plane at the gate and took the woman into custody for questioning. She was released without charges.
"She did the right thing by giving up the items voluntarily, and she was never malicious," Bennett said. "We never considered her a threat."
Transportation Security Administration officials had no comment on the security slip. TSA official Darrin Kayser said the agency would investigate.
"It was an honest but odd mistake," Bennett said. "But it's true that people often don't think about what's in their luggage."
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Kick a kid off a flight because she's having a coughing fit, even after a doctor says she's fine but a woman with a stun gun AND a knife gets on the plane.
