Being kicked off a plane just before it takes off is an embarrassing situation at the best of times, but when you’re booted off a big bird because other passengers are complaining that you smell, then things become mighty mortifying with a capital “M.”
The Daily Mail reports that this was the unenvious predicament that the Adler family from Detroit found themselves in recently when American Airlines decided to bow to peer pressure and kick Yossi Adler, his wife Jennie, and their 19-month-old daughter off the plane because fellow passengers had complained about their body odor.
The Adler family were returning from a vacation in Miami when the incident occurred. They were sat on the plane waiting for liftoff when officials asked them to accompany them back to the gate at Miami International Airport.
Not realizing exactly why they were being asked to leave the plane, but duly obliging because they didn’t wish to cause a scene or jeopardize anyone’s safety, Yossi and his wife Jennie picked up their daughter and made their way to the gate.
Here’s where things took a turn for the worse, as Yossi explained.
“All of a suddenly, as soon as they took us off, they closed the gate and said ‘Sorry sir, some people complained you had body odor and we’re not letting you back on.’”
Needless to say, Yossi and his wife were livid at such accusations. He remembers saying, “There’s no body odor that we have. There’s nothing wrong with us.”
Yossi filmed the incident on his cell phone and during the footage, he can be heard saying to the staff members who were preventing him from re-boarding the homeward bound flight, “We don’t have odor, okay? Nobody here has odor.”
A spokesperson for American Airlines confirmed that they did remove the Adler family from the flight after “several passengers” made serious complaints about their body odor.
To express their sympathy, the airline company agreed to find the family a hotel room for the night, gave them a free meal, and secured them a spot on a new flight the following morning.
However, the Adler’s luggage, which included their car seat and stroller, stayed on the flight without them. They were eventually reunited with the aforementioned luggage in Detroit.
Adamant that they didn’t smell, Yossi and Jennie recall asking several people in the airport if they thought they had a peculiar odor. All of those queried said “no!”
Yossi believes there’s a different reason his family got kicked off the plane but refuses to elaborate.
“I want them to own up to what really happened and to tell me the truth. What was it?”
