Man with Tourette's who kept saying 'bomb' denied seat on flight

A passenger with Tourette Syndrome was denied boarding a Jet Blue plane on Thursday after he repeatedly said the word "bomb".

Michael Doyle and his friend Chaz Petteway were booked on a flight from Washington DC to Puerto Rico to take part in a weekend Revolutionary War re-enactment but Doyle said he was not allowed to board the plane because of his Tourette's.

Speaking to Fox 5, the 19-year-old said: "With all the stuff in the news about the Boston bombings and stuff... I started ticking 'bomb.' Because that when I get nervous and anything on my mind will come out. And things you're not supposed to say."

But Doyle said the pair had planned ahead and alerted the airline and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) about his disorder.

"We went through TSA saying 'bomb' the whole time and no one stopped us. No one said anything because they were aware."

But before boarding the plane, a Jet Blue employee stepped in and said he would not be allowed on the flight.

"I mean they stood me up in front of everyone and told me I'm like in kindergarten that I'm not allowed to go on the plane," he said.

In a statement to Fox News, Jet Blue said the 19-year-old was "deemed a safety concern by the pilot in command after using the word 'bomb.' After further investigation, the situation was deemed innocuous."

But Doyle said it did not "make up for the embarrassment or the fact that we missed something that we'd been planning for two years."

Jet Blue offered him a free return ticket on another flight but no guarantee that this would not happen again.


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