News and notes from around the interweb:
- United Airlines is apologizing to a mother who accused the crew of trying to make her take off her 2-year-old son’s ventilator (HT: Paul H)
[S]he traveled with her 21-month-old son from Tampa, Florida, to Newark, New Jersey. …she had obtained the necessary documentation before her flight to Tampa “so that my son could safely fly and there would be no issues.”
…”Flying home, several flight attendants and the captain tried to demand that I remove my son from his vent and portable oxygen concentrator until we reached a safe altitude. I told them all that those pieces of medical equipment are keeping my son alive,” Sotomayor wrote on a GoFundMe page she’s started to raise funds for lawyers’ fees.
@missysoto0 @United Airlines Do better and be better! You tried to deny my child the right to fly HOME stating his vent and portable oxygen concentrator are a danger to my son and other passengers?! The captain of flight number UA1349 tried saying my son shouldn’t be allowed to fly because of his special needs. 4 flight crews told me I needed to disconnect his vent and oxygen until we were up in the air & kept saying our seats would be moved because I was unwilling to comply?! I explained multiple times that these pieces of equipment are keeping my son alive and to be told “He’ll be ok until we’re up in the air” is ignorant and unacceptable!!! If you have a loved one with special needs, I do NOT recommend flying United!!! This goes against ADA and corporate is unwilling to do anything to right the situation. An apology was all I wanted!!!#NoahScottStrong #TeamSpicySweetPotato #babiesoftiktok #fyp #medicalmomsoftiktok #medicallycomplex #preemiestrong #warriors #tracheostomy #trach #gtubebaby #gtube #trachbabies #dobetterbebetter #americanswithdisabilitiesact #unitedairlines ♬ original sound – Missy Soto - Dog shouldn’t be off-leash in the airport, but this is still awesome.
Everyone’s stressed at the airport… except this dog
byu/Osech inMadeMeSmile - You need the right AI tool for each job. Perplexity gets this one right. There’s a lot of outdated stuff on the internet so you’ll get outdated answers from AI that’s trained on it – just as you’ll get incorrect answers talking to people.
lmao pic.twitter.com/hsC15pjx9a
— america's jimbo lounge singer (@KrangTNelson) March 24, 2025
- Firm orders for the 737 MAX 10
- Air France KLM and Etihad sever ties after launching closer collaboration in 2023. They won’t even interline. Ben speculates that it could be related to an upcoming Air France KLM tie-in with Riyadh Air.
- Dominican woman arrested over bomb joke at Miami airport
- GoPuff now offers 2 United miles per dollar spentplus a 500 mile offer for new members.
“The turning point of a career, In Korea, being insincere” are Depeche Mode lyrics. Hopefully being insincere at United ends up being the turning point of several careers.
Several sources seem to make it pretty clear that this mother and her child were in bulkhead seats where you can’t store things on the floor, and that United tried several times to assist her in moving to different seats where the medical equipment was allowed to be, but the mother refused. So then the only other choice would be to disconnect the equipment and store it for takeoff since FAA regulations are FAA regulations. Basically this mom was told that she could move seats or she could store the equipment. But it’s 2025, and rules don’t apply any more. And if you don’t like the rules, then you grotesquely use your sick child to create a national news story.
@jns is right. Everything counts.
Not defending United, but it’s worth getting all the facts before casting judgment on any of the parties involved. Also, it is dangerous to have oxygen tanks on an airplane.
On ChatGPT having bad visa info: Gary is correct that artificial intelligence can be just as inaccurate, outdated, or just outright wrong, so do your best to verify sources and remain skeptical, but also recognize that sometimes there isn’t necessarily a ‘right’ answer to certain questions (like, it may just be ‘opinions,’ not ‘facts’ on some topics). However, visa info should be from official sources, like state department equivalent, etc. I like Perplexity, but I also recognize it’s backed by Bezos, so I expect it to be at least subtly pro-oligarch, and probably anti-union. I mean, AI is inherently not ‘great’ for workers, because instead of using it as a tool to enhance productivity, horrible managers are just getting rid of workers before the technology is even really ready for that, resulting in the further enshitification of everything, certainly degrading customer service where such automation has occurred. On general sources, Wikipedia seems to still be one of the few remaining independent, widely-available somewhat trustworthy sources, albeit not perfect, and only for-now, because, you know, no one is immune to bias, or from threats of violence by fascists. *sigh*
@Bob Spoons “Several sources” also say that United’s accessibility office chose the seats for her, that the bulkhead issue wasn’t mentioned to her on the flight, and that they did, in fact, take off with them in the same seats & the equipment on. So, no, your attempt to blame the victim does not work.
Portable oxygen concentrator are not ventilators. Ventilators are not allowed on aircraft. The mother is a troublemaker for suing. She should have just moved to different seats.
I don’t think this is attempting to blame the victim; but the points made are fair. The accessibility office made a mistake (shouldn’t have assigned those particular seats). I really don’t know why she wouldn’t have just moved seats. And, sure they took off with her in the same seats with the machine operating; they’re human beings, even if it was against the rules it would have ‘looked worse’ to force her off the flight when she had that special permission, or like drag them to new seats.
Don’t get me wrong, the mistakes were on the airline’s side, but she could have just moved seats too and had no drama.
an oxygen concentrator is not an oxygen container. it does not store oxygen. it concentrates the oxygen in the air and then expels it. perfectly safe to travel with.
@Total. But if both you and @Bob Spoons are correct, the screwup is with UA at a level outside the plane. I cannot blame the UA FAs or the pilot for attempting to solve an apparent violation of FAA rules. And, if true, framing this a desire to ” unplug” him, when she could have moved, erases any sympathy I had (about this flihht, not his condition).
In the old days, I’d point out the folly of taking legal advice from friends. More recently, I’d warn of using Reddit or Wikipedia. How sadly naive must you be to trust AI. Use AI to find the proper government website, great, but come on.