Family with a 19-month-old kicked off flight out of Miami after body odor complaint
American Airlines kicked a Detroit family off of their return flight from Miami International Airport this week because passengers and crew complained of the father’s body odor.
Yossi Adler, his wife and their 19-month-old child planned to return to Detroit Wednesday after a Miami vacation, they told Local 10 News. But instead they were ordered off the plane and told to return to the airport the next day.
“All of a sudden, as soon as they took us off, they closed the gate and then they said, ‘Sorry, sir, some people complained you had body odor and we’re not letting you back on,’” Adler told Local 10. He told an American Airlines representative that he and his family were being kicked off because they’re Jewish, according to a recording of the conversation Adler filmed and gave to NBC News.
“There’s a religious reason for some reason that they’re kicking me off the plane. We don’t have odor, OK? Nobody here has odor,” Adler said in the video he recorded.
American Airlines let the flight take off with the family’s luggage; it was not delayed. The airline put Adler and his family up in a hotel for the night and booked them on a flight home the following day.
“Our Miami airport team members were concerned about the comfort of our other passengers due to the odor,” said Alexis Aran Coello, American Airlines corporate communications manager.
This is not the first time an airline has booted someone for body odor. United Airlines booted a Nigerian woman from a flight out of Houston in 2016 because of body odor complaints. Now she’s suing the airline saying the airline kicked her off because of her race. Last year a Transavia Airlines international flight made an emergency landing because passengers complained of a man’s body odor.
Earlier this month, five American Airlines crew members asked to be taken to a hospital after their Philadelphia to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International flight landed because of an odor on board.
This story was originally published January 24, 2019 at 1:51 PM.
