After posting about the incident of a family kicked off a Spirit aircraft after being denied water for the pregnant woman in the party (I blamed the family for flying Spirit in the first place), I heard from Spirit Corporate Communications.

They didn’t defend their record of customer service, or disagree with my points about why it’s silly to fly Spirit if you can possibly avoid it.

But they did dispute that they denied a pregnant woman water. Sort of.

Here is what really happened:

Spirit did not deny water to anyone. Beverages were offered for purchase just as we do on all of our flights. The real story is that Dr. Roslin was escorted off the flight for violating federal law for interfering with a flight crew. He was causing a disturbance and attempted to incite other passengers to the point that another passenger started to cry in fear as a result of his behavior. He made verbal references to terrorism. His continued disturbance caused further delays to the flight. His escalating behavior was a safety risk to the crew and other passengers. His son kicked a Spirit employee in the groin. He had to be removed from the aircraft by law enforcement.

I replied:

Thanks for your note, and no doubt important details are often left out of these kinds of stories.

You don’t help your or Spirit’s credibility, though, with the claim “He made verbal references to terrorism” as though that was somehow relevant. I suppose he’s lucky his pregnant wife wasn’t sent to Guantanamo. 🙂

In all seriousness, and I’m happy to post an addendum, you’d have to agree that Spirit could have done a better job upfront to diffuse the situation and not let it reach the point where other passengers are crying in fear and a physical confrontation ensues… like finding a way to get a cup of woter for the pregnant woman enduring a 2-hour tarmac delay? 🙂

Spirit did not follow up.