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.
The only criticism I might have for the airline is that they held up taking off for so long. Airlines run on time or they lose big bucks, and they shouldn't wait while parents fail to get their kids to behave.
Never had it fail.
While true that it might have only been my kids and the way I raised them, I was raised the same way, in effect, and all my Dad had to do was say, "1,2........",. He never got to three.
Maybe it's genetic. ;^p
No, we discipline him. But he is very head strong and can throw some real temper tantrums, even after appropriate aforementioned discipline is administered. Some youngsters will be youngsters, and people just need to deal with it since you can't lock them in a closet or chain them up when you have business to attend to out in public.
Sounds right.
My wife and I had five children in 8 years. therefore we were in many lines with babies and toddlers. One time with the seven of us in a long line at Arthur Threechers we noticed a harried mother and father with a rambunctious toddler who would not settle down. The father and mother tried to soothe him, even threatened to take him to the car. She asked my wife how we could keep 5 in line. My first thought was to cheerily say drugs to avoid my famous blunt tongue, but honesty prevailed. I said we tell the child he/she and I will go outside and come back when we are settled down. If we come back and he/she was to get rambunctious again, she/he and I miss dinner completely. No yelling or unfollowed through threats. The look from the couple was one of total annoyance and I let it go. If you do this, you do not have incidents in places like planes where it costs you dearly.
Well what should the airline have done then? Allowed more time? and if so, how much?
What if the child hadn't settled down even then?
I well remember those toddler-days as a parent but this was one family amongst several other passengers. Do the needs of a few now outweigh the needs of the many?
And I think the airline bent over backwards to try to financially compensate this family. The father was ridiculous about it.
All that makes sense.
I cannot get over the part about
"she wouldn't get into her seat."
I think a 3-yr. old is light enough to be lifted by a parent and forced into a seat, strapped into the seat, and HELD FIRMLY into place.
If I were traveling with a little one, out of courtesy to others, I think I would request a seat near the rear of the plane. I'd also come with an aresenal of entertainment options. There are also other options to a public spanking that will get a little one's attention. Pinching comes to mind.
Listen bub, come back and talk to me when you have your first child, and we'll see if you've had a change of heart.
I have kids and I agree with the airline. There isn't much you can do to stop a 3 year old from screaming but parents can sure make them sit down. No child should be hitting a parent, ever. The parents were rude IMO. They were insisting on flying and disturbing other passengers. What harm would it have done, to exit and calm the child? If they missed the flight, another one would follow.
Good point. They didn't kick them off because their child was an annoying little twit (although she probably was), but because she wouldn't be and stay seated. Modern airline schedules can't afford to be delaying take-offs.
Why would the couple look annoyed at that? What you described works - telling a child the consequences, and following through. They have to know what to expect, and you have to live up to what you say you will do. As my grandmother used to say, "If you tell a child you're going to kill him, you have to do it." :)
oh please... the child was three-years old... not a baby... when one of my sons was about 16-months old he attempted to have a tantrum... he threw himself on the floor, was about to kick his legs and scream... i picked him up before he had a chance... securely held him... looked him square in the face and said sternly--"we do NOT do that." and i continued holding him... he was stunned... and he never tried it again... and he is the squirmy, rambunctious type... he's just learned that tantrums are not acceptable behavior in our family... and he learned way before three years of age... one thing that really helped me in that particular situation is i never gave control of the situation to him... i remained confident, and i believe he sensed it...
I can't agree with you on this statement.
Some youngsters will be youngsters, and people parents just need to deal with it since you can't lock them in a closet or chain them up when you have business to attend to out in public.
There, that's more like it.
It is beyond the pale that an unruly child should hold up 100s of other passengers just because the child is throwing a fit.
The parents are the ones that need to deal with it. Either by having their child under discipline, or by acquiescing to the fact that they will be delayed themselves.
I have 9 but I have never taken more than 3 at a time on an airline flight.
My son, who lives in Russia, travels back and forth frequently with his wife and their 4 children. My 3-year-old grandson is a perfect delight on airplane rides although I have been told that he is an absolute tyrant at home.
My kids could be very nasty brats at home but they were always well-behaved in public. Which is a blessing.
I'm a parent and I applaud Air Tran. Keeping a loaded airline at the gate waiting to take off costs money. The other hundred passengers had connections to make and their own lives to get on with. The issue wasn't the child crying or screaming, that happens on airlines all the time and is just part of being in public. The issue was the child not getting in her seat. FAA regulations do not allow a flight to leave until all passengers are in their seats. How long should Air Tran have waited? 30 minutes? 45? An hour?
Children freak out occasionally. It happens. But even crying and screaming the parents could have picked up the child, put her in the seat, buckled the seatbelt and held her down, if necessary, so the plane could leave. But they were unwilling to take the action necessary to get the "little darling" to sit the heck down so the plan could legally take off.
Air Tran did absolutely the right thing, and if I were running the airline, these poor excuses for parents wouldn't have gotten free tickets, either.
LOL!
Yeah, I'd be ticked off too.
Our children traveled extensively as toddlers and they never went on a tear like this kid did. If they had and we had not been able to quiet either one of them quickly, we would have disembarked without being asked to. No way would I have subjected a planeload of passengers to a 30 minute screamfest.
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