Posted on 07/12/2007 9:10:39 AM PDT by Abathar
GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. -- A Georgia mother said she wants answers and action after she and her baby were kicked off a plane.
Kate Penland said she was glad to board the plane in Houston to visit her father in Oklahoma after an 11-hour delay. But she said a rude and aggressive flight attendant caused her to get to Oklahoma a day late.
Penland thinks her 19-month-old son, Garren, has a bubbly personality. But Penland said when they were aboard a Continental Express plane, a flight attendant became annoyed by Garren's personality when he kept saying three words.
"As we started taxiing, he started saying, 'Bye, bye plane,'" said Penland. "At the end of her speech, she leaned over the gentleman beside me and said, 'It's not funny anymore. You need to shut your baby up.'"
In disbelief, Penland asked the woman if she was kidding. It was then, Penland said, the flight attendant went too far.
"She then said, 'You know, it's called baby Benadryl.' And I said, 'Well, I'm not going to drug my child so you have a pleasant flight,'" Penland said.
Penland said when the other passengers began speaking up on her behalf, the flight attendant got angrier and soon announced they were turning around and that Penland and Garren were going to be taken off the plane.
"I was crying, I was upset and I was thinking, 'What am I going to do? I don't have anything with me. I don't have any more diapers for the baby, no juice, no milk," said Penland.
The mother said she later learned the flight attendant told the pilot that she had threatened her. Penland said that never happened.
Express Jet Airlines released a statement that said, "We received Ms. Penland's letter expressing her concerns and intend to investigate its contents."
A fellow passenger told Atlanta TV station WSB that none of the other passengers had problems with Garren and that Penland never threatened the flight attendant. Penland said she is considering legal action.
hellzyah!
I CAN’T have children but I am wondering if we have the whole story here. It’s interesting that there’s nothing from the attendant and its’ all spun for the mother.
LOL, so true. And your comment is so funny coming right after someone has posted that no doubt that stewardess has had an abortion.
LOL!!!
I drink because I can't handle reality. I just take the drugs for fun. ;o)
Hey, welcome to Free Republic.
kudos to all three of you! Well-handled.
Good points.
Toddlers are by nature rowdy people ,but they are not dangerous. The stewardess was out of line. I hope she enjoyed her power trip.
Even before I had kids, a kicking screaming toddler never raised my eyebrows.
I don’t know what to say here. I posted my response to an earlier post and didn’t see the one that came before mine. There is more to this story than what we have seen. As a mother and grandmother of a BUNCH of kids, I get a kick out of the non-parents or the new parents posting woulda, shoulda, coulda....
She had been able to BUY the diapers and MILK in the airport!
I would suppose food and drink are tricky to get on planes post 9/11.
I was referring to posts that you have made to me.
If you’re the kind of parent that doses up your kid with Benadryl, that’s fine. Your offspring, your call.
But as someone who tries to avoid pumping my children full of chemicals, being told to give my kid Benadryl to shut him up would elicit a much worse response than what the flight attendant recieved.
They definitely would have had a reason to throw me off the plane. I’d react much better if someone told me the kid needed a whuppin’.
hahahahaha! That stewardess ISN'T a parent.
So, to you, drugging children is just another form of discipline. When a small child is saying, "Bye, bye, plane" repeatedly, you think it's the parent's RESPONSIBILITY to drug the kid quiet. Wow.
She is not very attractive, either. I knew there had to be a connection between looks and bad parenting.
Really? I'm always receiving compliments on how well-behaved my children are. I must be a supermodel.
Reminds me of the Bill Cosby routine about 4-year-old “Jeffrey.” from “Bill Cosby: Himself.”
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LOL! Good one. :)
“Hate flying; and still p-—— at that steward.”
That’s an unfortunate experience for you and your family.
I’m, too, still pi_____ with the flaming one who threatened me. I never reported him because I pay only 5% for a coach ticket on US Airways. No sense in “making waves.” Besides, I figure that he can’t be too happy a person with an attitude like that!
Here’s another story...
I was chief purser on a flight once... in other words, flight attendant in charge, and people were boarding. A male flight attendant was walking through the cabin when a frustrated male passenger (around 30 years old) swore to himself when he couldn’t find an available overhead bin. (I heard him, too, and assisted him.)
All of a sudden the F/A leaves the plane, and the customer service rep (gate agent) arrives and says to me, “I hear you have an unruly passenger that is being removed.”
I asked the F/A what the problem was. He said, “He used the “F” word, and I don’t want him on this flight.”
I told him I’d take care of it. I don’t like that language, either, but it certainly isn’t a reason to kick someone off a flight! Sheesh!
I was embarrassed for the passenger, and took him aside and apologized. I also told him to watch what he says on a plane from now on....that you never know how someone will take it.
He apologized to me, too.
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