17-year-old Lewis Nickell was diagnosed with Tourette’s nine months ago, and while I’m sure in everyday life it’s more of an annoyance than a real hindrance, the same can’t be said when it comes to air travel. As we all know too well, airports + bomb threats = GET DOWN ON THE GROUND WITH YOUR HANDS BEHIND YOUR HEAD NOW, so it’s lucky for Lewis that the staff at the Belfast airport have a sense of humor when it comes to dealing with his Tourette’s. According to Lewis,
Going to the airport is one of the trickiest things someone with Tourette’s or suffering from tics can do – for obvious reasons.
My brother told the staff why we were filming and that I had Tourette’s and they treated me like any other passenger.
Most people realised that I had a condition but there was a point where I shouted ‘bomb’ and I saw a woman look at me – she was mortified.
[protected-iframe id=”54c2c1a3c94aa6830ea5c07e9d70d5ad-97886205-92829036″ info=”//players.brightcove.net/32439484001/default_default/index.html?videoId=4689159219001″ width=”600″ height=”300″ frameborder=”0″]
Logically, the guy screaming “I’M A TERRORIST” in the middle of an airport isn’t actually a terrorist, and in the case that he actually IS one then he’s gotta be the worst one out there. Probably more likely to blow himself than to blow up an airport if he’s that incompetent.
As for Lewis though, at least the kid’s got a sense of humor about the whole thing – watching him try to read has gotta be the highlight of my day, if not year:
[H/T Metro]