It can happen at the most inopportune time; sometimes your bladder has a mind of its own. But what do you do when you have the urge to pee after sitting for 30 minutes on a plane that’s on the tarmac?
On April 18, Kima Hamilton was heading from Atlanta to Milwaukee on a Delta flight, and as he was waiting on the tarmac for the flight to take off, Hamilton had to urinate. But relieving himself cost him more than what he expected.
When Hamilton went to use the bathroom, he was told by a flight attendant that if he left his seat, the plane would lose its takeoff spot. So he went back to his seat; but 30 minutes later, they were still grounded on the tarmac, and he couldn’t hold it any longer.
“I don’t normally pee right before I get on the plane, and I’ve never had a problem like this before,” he explained to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “I don’t remember drinking an abnormal amount of water.”
By the time he got back to his seat, the pilot had already made the decision to remove him from the plane.
“The pilot came on and said, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, I’m sorry for the inconvenience, but we have to return to the gate and remove a passenger,’” Hamilton said. “It escalated to that point that fast.”
Video taken by fellow passengers Krista Rosolino and her husband, Mike, shows Hamilton being asked to remove himself from the flight by a Delta employee. As Hamilton, who works at a school, tries to plead with the employee that he had to get back to Milwaukee because he had a field trip with his students, the employee wasn’t moved.
According to the Journal Sentinel, when Hamilton refused to leave, everyone was escorted off the plane and then allowed to reboard without Hamilton. But Hamilton told the newspaper he’s grateful for the passengers who had his back.
“It was already understood and decided that I was a problem and I was getting kicked off the plane. When I exited, there were FBI agents waiting for me with Delta personnel,” Hamilton stated.
Delta did refund part of his ticket, but he was left spending three times the original amount to get a ticket on Southwest Airlines.
Krista Rosolino said she didn’t understand why Hamilton was forced off, especially when a passenger on another Delta flight told her that two other passengers on that flight were allowed to use the bathroom while the plane waited on the tarmac.
Read more at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.