Posted on 01/23/2007 10:25:48 AM PST by presidio9
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.
AirTran officials said they followed Federal Aviation Administration rules that children age 2 and above must have their own seat and be wearing a seat belt 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," AirTran spokeswoman Judy Graham-Weaver said.
Julie and Gerry Kulesza, who were headed home to Boston on Jan. 14 from Fort Myers, said they just needed a little more time to calm their daughter, Elly.
"We weren't given an opportunity to hold her, console her or anything," Julie Kulesza said in a telephone interview Tuesday.
The Kuleszas said they told a flight attendant they had paid for their daughter's seat, but asked whether she could sit in her mother's lap. The request was denied.
She was removed because "she was climbing under the seat and hitting the parents and wouldn't get in her seat" during boarding, Graham-Weaver said.
The Orlando-based carrier reimbursed the family $595.80, the cost of the three tickets, and the Kuleszas flew home the next day.
They also were offered three roundtrip tickets anywhere the airline flies, Graham-Weaver said.
The father said his family would never fly AirTran again.
How hard would it have been to sit next to child and hold her down???
Let me guess.. The parents don't believe in spanking?
Looks like Air Trans and the airline that the Muslims boycotted should merge to be the safest and least noisy airline industry in the world.
They already had three years. Let's negotiate with a 3 year old.
I won't miss them.........I've had enough of unruly kids in airplanes........
Julie and Gerry Kulesza, who were headed home to Boston on Jan. 14 from Fort Myers, said they just needed a little more time to calm their daughter, Elly.
"We weren't given an opportunity to hold her, console her or anything," Julie Kulesza said in a telephone interview Tuesday.
No opportuniy? The flight was already delayed 15 minutes. How much time did they expect to be given? Were they even trying, or were they waiting it out?
I agree with everything on your tagline except the pit bull part!
Then she'd scream all the louder, and the child abuse charges would fly from whatever liberals were seated nearby!
This was pretty much beaten to death as a topic yesterday.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1771754/posts
And as a regular AirTran flyer I thank him. That's one less ill-mannered kid I have to worry about sitting behind.
They have much bigger problems than a delay home. If they can't control her at 3, what are they going to do when she is 13?
They also were offered three roundtrip tickets anywhere the airline flies, Graham-Weaver said.
The father said his family would never fly AirTran again.
Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face. Geeze buddy, they reimbursed you and offered 3 free rides. We're talking some bucks here.
I used to fly with my daughter and in those days she could sit on my lap. Have those rules changed now, I wonder?
When my daughters were small, they were usually good travelers, though not always. We managed to find ways to calm them and distract them, even when one of them threw a temper tantrum in the Red Carpet Club. What we never did was put a crying kid on a plane.
I would say that for 95% of flights when our kids were small, they charmed the crew and had the run of the plane "helping". They always got extra cookies and, more often than not, we'd get a bottle of champagne or two, from the crew. They also were good at making friends with kids who were upset on the plane and calming them. Go figure.
Based upon my own experience with his random, uncontrollable bouts of crying in public places, I think the airline should be ashamed of itself and deserves every bit of the criticism that will be forthcoming on the web.
I'm flying ATA.
Oh my gosh! Of course the parents and the child did nothing wrong, it's all the airlines fault. Jeez Louise! Give me a break. I know that children are unpredictable, but the airline did what they could - they can't break the rules, right?
Dope her up good! After all, thats what Ritelin (?sp?) is for!
Highly unlikely that spanking would have calmed an already worked-up 3 year old....
Actually, though, it's not hard to work up a scenario where these are all nice people, but everything goes bad all at once.
Based on their itinerary, these folks were evidently headed home from vacation, I'd guess that the kid was way past tired, and way outside her "everything as it should be" comfort zone. And if she was visiting grandparents ....
Now add in the likelihood of a bad night's sleep and/or early-morning wakeup, and maybe a bit of stress getting to the airport.
I can see a basically good 3-yo kid melting down in that sort of situation.
Doesn't make the situation any better, but I can understand it.
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