For the past number of years, airlines in North America have had to deal with bad headline after bad headline. It really got bad when videos emerged of a man being forcibly dragged off of a United Airlines plane after they had overbooked. Later photos of him bleeding and bruised were released, but it was the airline that left with a black eye.
Although United wasn't fined by the Federal Aviation Administration, reports are that they settled with the man, 69-year-old David Dao, to the tune of $140 million. Dao received a broken nose, concussion, and several broken teeth.
It was far from the only bad headline. Other airlines dealt with controversies over the exclusion of service animals, long unnecessary delays and even the death of pets.
It seems that 2019 is no different and while many people are talking about the long delays at airports caused by the government shutdown, we may have our first airline controversy - and it stinks.
A family from Detroit says they were booted off of their American Airlines flight home from Miami. Their baggage had been stowed and the couple were seated with their young child, when they were asked to disembark the plane.
"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 WPLG news.
He says they also lied to him about their luggage, claiming he was told it had been removed from the plane when it actually traveled to Detroit ahead of them.
The family was left with nothing except what they had on them when they boarded the plane.
American Airlines confirmed their story in a statement.
"Mr. Adler and his wife were removed from the flight when several passengers complained about their body odor," the airline said. "They have been booked into a hotel for the night and given meal vouchers. They have been rebooked on a flight Thursday [the following day]."
Yossi says something doesn't smell right about the whole situation.
"There is no body odor that we have. There's nothing wrong with us."
Anyone who has traveled knows that it's not the most comfortable experience. You can always expect people to be less groomed than they would normally and booting off a family seems to be an extreme reaction.
Yossi says he wants to know the real reason he and his wife were removed.
"We stopped several people in the airport and it's embarrassing, but we asked them 'Do you think we smell because we just got kicked off a plane for smelling?' People told us we didn't smell," said Jennie Adler.
The family made it home to Detroit the following day and were reunited with their luggage.