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Family Kicked off American Airlines Flight After Complaints About Body Odor

Jan. 26, 2019
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2 min read
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Family Kicked off American Airlines Flight After Complaints About Body Odor
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A family on vacation in Florida says that they were kicked off their American Airlines flight home to Detroit because fellow passengers were complaining about their body odor.

Yossi and Jennie Adler say they were removed from the flight, along with their 1-year-old daughter, from Miami on Wednesday because passengers told the crew they smelled bad. ABC News reports that airline staff escorted the family off the plane and told them to book another flight after several passengers complained.

"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,'" Yossi Adler told local news station WPLG on Thursday. "There's no body odor that we have. There's nothing wrong with us," he added. "I want them to own up to what really happened and to tell me the truth."

American Airlines told WPLG that it was indeed the couple's body odor that got them kicked off the flight. "Mr. Adler and his wife were removed from the flight when several passengers complained about their body odor," the airline told the news channel in a statement. "They have been booked into a hotel for the night and given meal vouchers. They have been rebooked on a flight Thursday."

Yossi said he believes there was "a religious reason they’re kicking me off the plane,” he said in a video. The Adler family is Jewish.

The family finally made it home to Detroit — along with their luggage. The airline had promised to offload it when the family was booted from the flight, but the bags didn't arrive until the Adlers were back in Detroit.

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Allegedly odorous passengers in the past have not only been denied boarding, but have also caused flights to divert, too. One sick passenger's "unbearable stench" in June 2018 made his fellow Transavia Airlines passengers vomit and faint in their seats. The plane diverted to a nearby airport to offload the passenger, who it turns out was harboring a fatally ill infection.

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