"It's Cool to Fly!" American Airlines Program Helping Kids With Autism (and their families!)

Welcome back to the show for caregivers, about caregivers hosted by a caregiver.

This is Peter Rosenberger. This is the nation's number one show for the family caregiver, for those who are putting themselves voluntarily between a vulnerable loved one and even worse disaster. That was my wife Gracie singing Rejoice Evermore. That is from her upcoming record titled Resilient. And I would say, John, that she is resilient.

That's not really a matter of debate. She is one tough lad. I tell her she's tougher than trained smoke and she can flat out sing too. And wait till you hear some of the songs that are on this record.

If only her producer would just really get it together. Oh, wait, that would be me. So I've got it. Hey, you know what? By the way, if you want to be a part of the show, it is 877-655-6755.

877-655-6755. We'd love to hear from you. John, not too terribly long ago, I saw a new story about a special training program. It's called It's Cool to Fly, which I fly a bit, a good bit. It is kind of cool. I enjoy flying. But the whole point of this is to help kids with autism through the flying experience.

And American Airlines does this. And I started reading about it. I thought, well, that's fascinating.

Why haven't we thought of this before? And they've been doing this program for a while. And I thought this is really a spectacular program.

But it's not what you think. It's not like they don't put them on the plane and do it. They have a whole simulation of this. Okay, so it's like a role play sort of thing? Well, no, they have the whole thing for baggage check in, the whole thing.

The plane just doesn't take off. They have all the simulations of it. Yeah, but they run through it like a dry run, like a dress rehearsal. Yes. Yeah.

And so I reached out to American Airlines. And Bruce Sickler is with us. He's the leader of this program.

And it's called It's Cool to Fly. Bruce, did I get that right? You're the leader of it. You're the main dude, the head honcho? Yes, sir. I am co-chairperson of it, started the program.

I think this is a great program. And thank you for taking the time to call this. How did this start? There's always going to be a story behind this. How did this start?

Well, it started back. I attended an airline symposium, and it was focused on disabilities back in 2010. And they had a segment on one of the airlines, how they participated in one of the programs for autism. And after the conference, I came back to the leadership. And I was like, why can't we pitch it away to where the airlines reaches out to the community instead of community reaching out to the airlines and being voluntold instead of just volunteering, doing the service for the community. So it took a while, had to put a business case together and so forth and pitched it to the leadership. And like anything, they're kind of leery of how it's all going to work out. I said, don't worry about it.

It'll work out. I got faith in it. So, you know, 2010, I'm sorry, 2014, we did an inaugural flight in DFW where we had 120 participants. We did the whole, it's called the Fly American simulation. They checked in at the ticket counter, got their boarding passes, went through security, went to the gate, waited for about 20 minutes or so, and got on the plane. And we taxied around the airport for about 25, 30 minutes. And the flight crew did their announcements, boarding announcements, the whole thing like they do every day. And you get on the plane, that's another safety announcements.

We taxied around, did a high speed taxi down a runway, give them the sense of the vibration of the noise of the aircraft, the engines, the vibration of the baggage, overhead baggage up in storage and brought it back to the gate. And that was it. I just think that's phenomenal. I mean, and I had a, we did a whole thing on autism not too terribly long ago. And the lady that called in the show, she headed up autism in Tennessee and she was talking about just the little things in life that can affect a child with autism, like getting a haircut. I mean, we don't, we take that for granted that, you know, we're going to get a haircut, but when you put scissors close to somebody's face and they have autism, that's a, that's a terrifying experience for them.

And then you think about getting on a plane and getting on a plane for, for many people that don't have autism, it can be terrifying and going through the airport that's unsettling and all that. And I think that is just fascinating that you guys have done that and it's blossomed. I mean, you start off with 120. What's now you've gotten up to how many families that have done this? Uh, we have to, since the five years, we just hit our five year goal this year. Uh, we did 1500 families and over 5,000 participants and growing every year. Well, now let me, what are some of the things that have impacted the AA staff there, the, the flight attendants and so forth? How have you gotten great stories back on how this has been meaningful to them as they've participated?

Yes, definitely. I mean, just participating in all volunteers. So I'll be a volunteer crew, flight attendants, pilots, and, um, through with the, uh, a bunch of volunteers locally to do this. And they just, they, you find out little things that a lot of your team members have children who are on the spectrum or have family members on the spectrum.

So that in itself opens up a whole new door for opportunity. You know, this gives them opportunity to share their, their stories with other crew members, but also within the company itself, it brings that that's in that sense of, of pride where you have somebody that actually gets the, gets the gist of it and what it takes to travel with a disability, how it affects your everyday life, you know. Well, and, and see, we travel with my wife and I, we travel with a disability. She has significant mobility impairments, but when you deal with something like this and, and, and other, other passengers may not be aware that the child has autism. And, and, and I remember this, this, this friend of mine who was on the show when did this whole thing, she said she wanted to buy a t-shirt said, don't judge it's autism, you know? And, and I think that it's, it's so important to bring this out to the forefront so that passengers that have not necessarily any kind of connection to autism in their own personal journey, but can be aware that, you know, it's, this can be a very terrifying experience. And it's okay to, to, to be compassionate and, and to be kind human beings in this situation. And that this has got to be meaningful to these flight attendants and crew members and so forth who have autism in their own family to see, to be able to participate in something like this.

And so I just really applaud you. Do you, do you hand out the peanuts? We do have a snack.

We do have a snack, um, that we sometimes depending on what time of the day it is, we either have, we don't do a full cart service or something like that because FAA rules say we can't do a cart service because we're taxiing. So we do it after the fact or before the fact we'll have a reception with, um, snacks provided like the fuel refresh carts that you see when you're waiting at the airport. So, uh, we provide that before or after. Well, I, one of the things that we talk about on this show and we've heard this for caregivers for many, many, many years is what you guys talk about on the flight. Put your mask on first. Okay.

And we get that. But now when you put a mask on a child with autism, now that can be a little bit challenging because they're not going to quite understand that. Do you guys go over that at all?

Have you, are you approaching that or what? We do all the safety announcements and we also have a, we do a coloring book slash social story, which gives them step by step of the process of going to the airport the day of your vacation. This is what to expect when you're traveling.

You know, you get your bags, I mean you pack your bags at home, you get in the car, you go through the whole process step by step in this coloring book slash social story. So you guys have really thought this thing through and I just applaud you and I appreciate you taking the time on a Sunday afternoon just to call on the show and share this. If people want to find out more information about that, what's the best way?

Best way is either reach out to American Airlines or actually my personal email, bruce.sichler.aia.com. Well, that is very generous of you to put that out. I'll put that out in the podcast and we'll, we'll put this out as well so people have it written down if you can get that. But it's a, this is an incredible gift that you're doing to so many families and I hope, I think I get the sense that you guys see that, that this is beyond a business model. This is a, this is a really meaningful thing you're doing to families. So thank you for that.

Oh, you're welcome. And it's all about caring for, you're caring for people on life's journey. And that's just another opportunity to find the ways to have families travel besides, besides car and train.

I mean, think about it. The whole travel industry would do this. It would make a lot more opportunities for parents to travel.

Well, there's so many news stories out there about the negative aspects of it. And this is one that just deserved to get extra bit of attention. And please keep us in mind when you have advancements in this or things that you want us to know, we would, you're always welcome to call in and share those things because this is something that's important. We have a lot of people that listen to this show who travel and they have a special needs child or they have a child with autism and things that it's really nice to know that there are travel companies that are aware of this and are trying to make a difference. It's not just trying to be accommodating. It's really going the extra mile with it.

And that's what you guys are doing. So thank you very much for that, Bruce. You're sure welcome to, I appreciate you having the time on the show.

Well, you're quite welcome. Bruce Sickler from American airlines calling on this and Bruce, I do appreciate it. And listen, one of the things that caregivers struggle with so much is isolation. And that's why we do the show because we know that caregivers get isolated and now you're having some, some real paths. So if something, if autism has been a, is a big part of your family's life and you're afraid to get on a plane because of it, here's, here's a real, real no kidding practical solution. And please reach out to American airlines.