PLANE SICK
Frontier Airlines passenger arrested after ‘complaining about vomit on plane seat’
Rosetta Swinney was travelling with her daughter when she was removed from the flight
A WOMAN was arrested and spent 12 hours in jail after complaining there was vomit on her plane seat before a flight.
Rosetta Swinney, 53, was travelling on Frontier Airlines with her daughter from Las Vegas to North Carolina.
5
She said her flight had already been delayed so staff could clean the plane but once she boarded the aircraft, she said she noticed her daughter’s seat was still dirty.
Rosetta told WTVD-TV: "She jumped up to say 'Mom! My hands are wet.'"
"She smelled it. She said: 'This is vomit, mom.'"
"So we went to look. It was on the bag, all over her shirt, her hands."
5
5
The airline said a flight attendant offered to seat Rosetta and her daughter at either end of the plane while the seat was cleaned.
Rosetta disputes the airline’s version of events.
She said she confronted the attendant after her requests were ignored and authorities were called to remove her and her daughter from the plane.
In the video, she explained further: "All they had to do was clean it up and just let me and my daughter fly and go home."
"I asked the flight attendant if she was going to clean it up. She said: 'That's not my job'."
5
Police then boarded the plane, which Rosetta said she thought it was someone else coming to clean the plane.
She said: "She came to me and said: 'You are going to have to leave. You're going to have to get off the plane.'"
"I said I wasn't getting off the plane, I had paid for my flight. I asked what I was being arrested for, they said I was trespassing.
"When I get outside of the plane, they put the handcuffs on me and arrest me, while my daughter is crying."
She then spent 12 hours in jail while her daughter was placed in protective custody.
5
Atlanta lawyer Harry Daniels, who represents Rosetta, says none of it should have happened.
He says it is the responsibility of an air carrier to ensure a plane is sanitary.
Frontier Airlines told Sun Online Travel: "During boarding of flight 2066 from McCarran International Airport (LAS) to Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU) last week, two passengers told the flight attendants that vomit was present in their seat area.
"The flight attendants apologised and immediately invited the mother and her teenage daughter to move to either end of the plane so that the seat area could be cleaned by a cleaning crew.
"The mother and daughter were also told that once boarding was complete they would be provided other seats if available.
"The daughter was also offered cleaning products for herself and invited to use the lavatory to wash up.
Pontins guest greeted by vomit, cigarette butts and broken toilet seat - after being given key to someone else's apartment
"The mother was unsatisfied with the response and became disruptive. As a result, the flight attendants determined that the mother and daughter should be deplaned and accommodated on another flight.
"The mother refused, and following procedure, law enforcement was called.
"Law enforcement then requested that everyone deplane so that the mother and daughter could be removed allowing the aircraft to be re-boarded and depart.
"We apologised to our passengers for the inconvenience caused by the departure delay. The safety of passengers and crew is our top priority at Frontier."
Most read in travel
Last year, a Ryanair passenger was left horrified when a pile of vomit was found underneath the seat before a flight.
Student Danielle said that while it was eventually cleaned up, the entire cabin smelt of sick for the rest of the flight.
This article was originally published by and has been reproduced with permission.
Sun Online Travel has contacted Frontier Airlines for additional comment.
Topics