Airlines have been put on notice after a regrettable incident that went viral of a passenger was forcibly removed off an overbooked United Airlines flight. Ever since the doctor was bloodied and bruised from being forcefully extracted from United Flight 3411, airlines should be on their best behavior while the spotlight is focused on them. That means don’t kill the potentially largest rabbit in the world. It also means don’t kick off a passenger because he has to take a whiz.
On April 18, Kima Hamilton was on Delta Flight 2035 going from Atlanta to Milwaukee. The plane taxied to the runway and passengers were told that they were third in line for takeoff. Then they waited for about 30 minutes. The 39-year-old Milwaukee-based artist and poet desperately had to use the bathroom, so he did. If there wasn’t a 30-minute delay you could sort of understand Delta’s stance, not that he deserved to be kicked off the plane. But there was a delay, and when you gotta go, you gotta go.
Fellow passenger Krista Rosolino estimates that Hamilton was out of his seat for less than a minute. However, soon after Hamilton returned to his seat the pilot announced that the flight would return to the gate to remove a passenger. When the plane got to the gate, Hamilton was asked to leave the plane by two flight attendants. Hamilton told the attendants that he needed to be home the following morning for a school field trip.
“I’m not really clear on why I’m being asked to leave this plane,” Hamilton told the flight attendant. “I purchased this ticket, I had an emergency. I had to pee.”
Hamilton asked, “I tried to hold it the first time and you said I absolutely couldn’t and I’m being kicked off the plane?”
“It was already understood and decided that I was a problem and I was getting kicked off the plane,” Hamilton told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “When I exited there were FBI agents waiting for me with Delta personnel.”
Hamilton was assured he would be re-booked on another flight, but he reportedly was not. Hamilton said he was only given a partial reimbursement and left to find his own way to Milwaukee. He eventually purchased a walk-up ticket on Southwest Airlines which ended up costing him three times the amount of the refund he received from Delta. He then had to pick-up his checked luggage in Milwaukee from Delta.
Rosolino, who is an attorney at the Milwaukee law firm of Warshafsky, Rotter, Tranoff & Bloch, said, “As a person, and now a mother, and someone who tries to fight for people’s rights on a regular basis, it just felt really wrong what had happened to him.”
The entire ordeal took about two hours. Two hours over a grown man making wee-wee.
Delta issued a statement on pissgate:
“Our flight crews are extensively trained to ensure the safety and security of all customers. It is imperative that passengers comply with crew instructions during all phases of flight, especially at the critical points of takeoff and landing.”
There you have it. Next time you have to drain your lizard and you are on Delta just piss your pants. Wetting your pants beats missing your flight.