On April 23, 2017, a California family of 4 were kicked off a Delta flight en route from Maui to Los Angeles. Brittany and Brian Schear from Huntington Beach, CA boarded a Delta flight with their two small children. Issues began when the family was asked to give up their two-year-old son’s, Grayson, seat. The family refused, seeing as they had payed for the seat they didn’t see a reason to give it up.

The Schears originally purchased the ticket for their 18-year-old son Mason, but then decided to send him home early so their 2-year-old could have a seat. The family had explain the situation to the ticket agent and the ticket agent accommodated the families needs and arranged for the four of them to sit together.

A flight attend had ask the Schears to give up their 2-year-old’s seat, and when they refused the Delta flight attendant demanded they give up the seat. Again refusing, the family was then threatened with jail time and having their child put in foster care.

Brittany Schear began filming the encounter on her cellphone. You can hear the flight attention repeatedly asking them to move their child, and Brian clearly distraught and trying to stay calm and reason with the Delta staff. You can hear a female employee say as the Schears refused to exit the plane, “You have to give up the seat or you’re going to jail, your wife is going to jail and they’ll take your kids from you.”  While Brian told a Delta staff member, “You’re saying you’re gonna give that away to someone else when I paid for that seat? That’s not right. You need to do what’s right. I bought the seat and you need to just leave us alone.”

After The video was released Delta responded saying, “We are sorry for the unfortunate experience our customers had with Delta, and we’ve reached out to them to refund their travel and provide additional compensation. Delta’s goal is to always work with customers in an attempt to find solutions to their travel issues. That did not happen in this case and we apologize.”

image taken from: http://www.about-paris.com/paris-orly-airport.htm

On Saturday, March 18, 2017, a 39-year-old man by the name of Ziyed Ben Belgacom attacked the Orly airport in Paris, France. Belgacom held a female French soldier at gunpoint and shouted, “I am here to die in the name of Allah… There will be deaths,” before being shot to death by two soldiers patrolling the airport. According to French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, Belgacom was shot after tackling the female soldier,  using her as a human shield, and attempting to take her weapon.

Thousands of travelers were evacuated and rerouted to other airports near by. Belgacom was the only casualty. Earlier that day, Belgacom stole a car from a French woman and shot a police officer after stealing his weapon. Officials said the officer didn’t suffer from any life threatening injuries. Francois Molins, a French prosecutor, was the one who identified the attacker as  Ziyed Ben Belgacom. Molins claims that Belgacom had a previous arrest record, such as arrests for violence and theft, including one five-year sentence that began in 2009.

However, Belgacom’s father insists that he is not a terrorist, and instead blames his actions on his drugs use. “My son was not a terrorist. He never prayed and he drank,” said Belgacom’s father. “This is what happens under the influence of drink and cannabis.” A toxicology report showed that Belgacon was in fact under the influence, as he had alcohol, cocaine, and marijuana in his system.

There were also a number of Belgacom relatives taken into custody and questioned. His father was released the next day, Sunday March 19. He stated that his son had called him after the first shooting and had sounded “very angry.” “He said to me: ‘Daddy, please forgive me. I’ve screwed up with a police officer,'” the father said. “I said I didn’t forgive him ‘because you hurt a policeman.'”