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Toddler's temper ousts family from plane

post #1 of 8
1/23/07 at 6:53pm
Thread Starter 
AirTran Airways on Tuesday defended its decision to remove a Massachusetts couple from a flight after their crying 3-year-old daughter refused to take her seat before takeoff.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070123/...flight_tantrum

I've had flight delays for a lot dumber reasons than that. Like some first class passenger hasn't made it to the gate yet. I've had them hold a flight for 30 minutes just so some rich person could catch the flight, but they can't do the same for a little kid?
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post #2 of 8
1/23/07 at 7:01pm
I don't think the airline did anything wrong in this case, actually. Of course, they shouldn't hold a flight for ANYONE - rich dude in First Class or screaming uncontrollable kid in coach alike. I think the airline went above and beyond in not only reimbursing them the cost of the existing tickets, but giving them free tickets to boot.

This was not a simple matter of the kid didn't want to sit. She was hitting her parents and generally running amok. Even at 3, my son had the sense not to hit us. I sense a lack of discipline, actually. And if the parents had any inkling that the flight was going to cause her anxiety, they should have had something on-hand to help her with that (medicine, etc), or at least start calming her at the gate before boarding.

But that's just my opinion.
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post #3 of 8
1/23/07 at 7:31pm
I'd have to agree with judy on this one. If she was as roudy as they say - then i understand. and - the reimbursed them for the tickets, flew them home and gave them round trip tickets to anywhere the airline flies.
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post #4 of 8
1/23/07 at 8:56pm
On the news the family was on and it looked like the girl wouldn't sit still and was having a melt down there too. I'm glad they didn't take off with her out of her seat and not belted in.
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post #5 of 8
1/23/07 at 9:30pm
Thread Starter 
Why do people assume that parents aren't doing a good job or aren't discipling their child when a child behaves like this? Maybe she has a problem that causes her to behave like this that is out of their control and they're just doing the best they can without getting CPS called on them for child abuse of a child that even Mother Thersea could not control. Trust me on this one, I know a lot about really bad, violent, long lasting tantrums. You can be God's gift to parenting and still have a kid who throws fits like this and worse.
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post #6 of 8
1/23/07 at 9:43pm
Irregardless of whether it was a discipline problem or otherwise, the airline should have removed that child from the plane. The rules of each airline stipulate that anyone disrupting a flight will be removed. That includes drunks, mentally disturbed individuals, and children having complete meltdowns. This "tantrum" sounds like more than that and there is no reason that the other couple hundred paying passengers should have to listen to several hours of that. Besides, with it being close quarters, if the child is hitting her own parents, it's very possible that she could accidentally hit anyone else around her as well.

The parents claim they weren't given the time to console her, but the flight was delayed 15 minutes as is. What did they do in that 15 minutes??? I feel bad for the family, but even worse for those hundreds of passengers, had they been allowed to take off with that rucous going on!
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post #7 of 8
1/23/07 at 9:59pm
Now I can just see it........captain speaking over the intercom........Little Lucy, you better calm your butt down before I pull this plane over!

Seriously, I am not sure how I feel about it. I have been that parent (minus the hitting) with a screaming child on the plane and know how crappy it feels. Benadryl works wonders for long flights though.
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post #8 of 8
1/23/07 at 10:20pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Grace
Maybe she has a problem that causes her to behave like this that is out of their control and they're just doing the best they can without getting CPS called on them for child abuse of a child that even Mother Thersea could not control.
Entirely possible. But you would think that a) they know this is a possibility, and have prepared for it somehow (they make tranquilizers for children, don't they?), and b) they could have done something in the 15 minutes the plane was delayed while waiting. How much time did they think they'd need? 2 minutes? 30? It sounded like the only thing they wanted to do was hold the child, and you just can't do that with a three-year-old (especially if she's beating you about the head and shoulders at the time).
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