HONOLULU - A 16-year-old girl who caught a cold during a school trip to New York was kicked off her flight home because she was coughing.

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.

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."

that sucks

wtf? the girl was sick, it wasn't like she was being obnoxious with it! the pilot needs a kick in the ass for that shit.

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

Yeah, With a size 15 steel-toed boot.

ThePunisher said:

Unfortunately, in our lawsuit-crazy culture, the captain had no choice.
Better to be safe than sorry.

Imagine IF she'd had a stronger episode mid-flight and something happened? The captain, the stewards, and the airline would all be getting sued for billions of dollars. Heck, if she'd broken a fingernail they'd get sued.

So, yeah it sounds extreme, but regrettably it was the "responsible" thing to do.

or imagine if you were sitting in front of her while she coughed on you for four hours.

PurpleJedi said:

i hate how litigation-happy society has become. i seriously do. people don't believe in personal accountability or in "anything can happen" anymore, and it's sad.

madartista said:

They probably assumed she was a terrorist, being she was from Honolulu and not white. They probably thought she was latest bio weapons deciple

bird flu

I wanna become "litigation-happy"...still lookin' for that icy sidewalk while I'm holding my McDonald's coffee, talking on my cellphone, and smoking a cigarette...