How would you handle the situation?

[Kristie]

So, I'm just curious... how would you moms handle this type of situation? Would the F/A's, here on the board, do anything different?

Girl Kicked Off Plane After Tantrum

January 23,2007 | ORLANDO, Fla.

Flight attendants often deal with obnoxious passengers who won't listen to instructions by kicking them off the plane. But a Massachusetts couple think AirTran Airways went overboard by treating their crying 3-year-old daughter in much the same way.

Julie and Gerry Kulesza and daughter Elly were removed from the flight when the girl refused to take her seat before takeoff, airline officials said Tuesday. But her parents said they just needed a little more time to calm her down.

The Kuleszas planned to fly home to Boston on Jan. 14 from Fort Myers after a four-day visit with the girl's paternal grandparents. She was removed because "she was climbing under the seat and hitting the parents and wouldn't get in her seat" during boarding, AirTran spokeswoman Judy Graham-Weaver said.

AirTran officials say they were only following Federal Aviation Administration rules that children age 2 and above must have their own seat and be wearing a seatbelt upon takeoff.

"The flight was already delayed 15 minutes and in fairness to the other 112 passengers on the plane, the crew made an operational decision to remove the family," Graham-Weaver said.

But Julie Kulesza said: "We weren't giving an opportunity to hold her, console her or anything."

"Elly was sitting in front of our seat crying," she said in a phone interview. "The attendant motioned to a seat and asked if we purchased it for her."

They had paid for the seat. Gerry Kulesza said another attendant then approached the family and told him: "You need to get her in control and in her seat."

The couple told the attendants they were trying. Julie Kulesza said she asked the attendants if Elly could sit on her lap, but they said no.
The family flew home the next day.

The Orlando-based carrier reimbursed the family $595.80, the cost of the three tickets, and offered them three roundtrip tickets anywhere the airline flies, Graham-Weaver said.

But that's too little, too late for the Kuleszas. The father said they would never fly AirTran again

[amelia]

Originally Posted by Kristie

So, I'm just curious... how would you moms handle this type of situation? Would the F/A's, here on the board, do anything different?

Girl Kicked Off Plane After Tantrum

As a former FA, they did the right thing in not letting the parents hold the child during take off b/c the child was over 2 and like the article says, the child had to be in his or her own seat. But having them taken off the flight?? I'm not too sure if that was the right thing to do (I would be pissed if I was that family and I would't have done it if I was the FA). I'm going to guess that they might not have pushed back from the gate if child was not in her seat....but they should have given the parents a chance to get her in it. They never said if the 15 min. delay was b/c of the little girl or if it was for some other reason. But I think taking the family off was a little much....esp. if the delay was for some reason besides the little girl.

[Doogie]

Plus, a lot of parents don't realize that if you do a high speed aborted takeoff, anything not secured is going to fly forward.

The LAST place you want a young child is on your chest/shoulder area during takeoff or landing.

They're not called "lap rockets" just for the hell of it!

[MQAAord]

From the article, it appears they gave the family like 15 minutes delay to get the kid settled. That's a 15 minute delay for ALL the other pax on that flight!

I wasn't there, so really I can't make any judgements, but the bottom line is the FAR that states that passengers who are 2 years of age and older MUST be in their seat with their seatbelt fastened. I think the crew did what they felt was necessary to ensure the safety & comfort of ALL their passengers.

[Kristie]

so what if the child looks like he/she's under 2 and could fit on a parents lap?

i'm just asking out of semantics, i guess...and you know how parents try to get the child's discount by saying a lower age and all?

just curious...

[MQAAord]

As flight attendants we pretty much take the parents' word for it.

There were several times I had to ask "how old is s/he"? If the parent said under 2 I generally believed them. There were a couple cases where it was painfully obvious that the child was NOT under 2, and they had a boarding pass/seat assignment for the child, they just (for whatever reason) didn't want to put the kid in their own seat. I had to tell them to buckle the child in his/her own seat.

Ticket agents can, and DO, ask for age verification (birth certificate) if a child looks borderline. One of the few episodes of A&E's 'Airline' that I saw was a SW agent requiring a birth certificate from a couple not wanting to pay the money for a seat for their child. The kid looked (to me) to be older than two, and they did not have a birth certificate on them. The agent wouldn't allow the family to travel with the child as a lap child without documentation. I didn't watch long enough to see the outcome.

[Kristie]

do parents normally carry a birth certificate around with them when they're traveling like that? i would think it would be kinda dangerous (if it were to get stolen or what not).

[garnet1996]

My daughter just turned 2 and JB told us that a couple months ago if she were "lap flying" I would have needed to show a birth certificate. I brought a copy of hers the last time we flew when she was only about 5 months old. Not for seating, but how else do you prove it is your child. Probably just being overly paranoid....

That story made me feel bad for everyone. As a mom of a 2 year old who has been known to throw a temper tantrum - it made me feel bad for the parents. I also agree that one child should not hold up the rest of the passengers. So...I don't really have an answer.

[Canada]

I think parents need to get their children under control. One three year old should not be delaying an entire plane full of adults. I would hope that the parents, rather than complaining about the airline, would use this opportunity to teach their child she cannot just behave this way and get away with it. Three is young but not too young to understand that Mommy and Daddy couldn't stay on the plane because she was having a temper tantrum. This was the consequence of her actions. I am a teacher and see way too many examples of parents who are not in control of their children. It starts at two or three and then by the time they're in kindergarten, they think they are in charge and don't have any respect for adults, like their teacher. I think that if the airline gave them a reasonable amount of time to calm her down and she still wouldn't obey, then they had no choice but to ask them to leave.

[lucky81698]

I think the crew did the right thing and I'm sure the rest of the plane agreed! Obviously, it is a violation of FARs if the child is over 2 and not in a seat for take-off and landing. If the parents could not control her to do that simple thing, what a miserable flight that could have been. I am just disappointed that AirTran gave them more free tickets. Why do companies feel they have to reward bad behavior? If it was to avoid bad publicity, it didn't work, the family still tried to trash them.

I never travelled with a birth certificate. But since I was a non-rev Billy's age is already in the computer. I guess if I actually paid for a ticket, I'd probably have a copy with me just in case. We always put him in a seat anyway. Personally, I just don't feel it is safe to hold them.