This version of the story leaves out a pertinent fact. While it's perfectly reasonable for an airline to require a family with an out-of-control tantrumming preschooler to get off the plane so it can be in compliance with federal safety regulations for take-off, the airline also refused to let the family fly again for 24 hours, incurring a hotel bill, lost work time for the father, and other inconveniences. They invoked the same policy that is used on belligerent adults who get kicked off a flight without getting arrested and charged.
Kids this age sometimes get out of control. Sometimes it's due to bad parenting, but by no means always. A 3 year old is capable of wriggling out of a seat belt or opening the buckle if really determined, so it may really have been impossible for the parents to get the girl seated without inflicting real injury on her and/or letting her inflict serious injury on them, and simultaneously stay buckled in their own seats. Notwithstanding the folks here who suggest they should have given the girl a good whupping, the fact is that in this day and age, the parents are likely to find themselves arrested and charged with child abuse if they use that form of discipline. The airline should have offered the family the opportunity to fly on the next flight available (preferably soon after the flight in question, since tantrums of this magnitude are generally followed by complete exhaustion and sound sleep).
I agree with your position if your information is correct.
Do we know that there was another flight available that day and that the airline did not pick up the hotel bill??
The airline should have offered the family the opportunity to fly on the next flight available (preferably soon after the flight in question, since tantrums of this magnitude are generally followed by complete exhaustion and sound sleep).
I agree. I had not noticed the 24 hour wait required.
I also did not advocate whupping the child but simply getting her calmed down somewhere besides the airplane.
I appreciate that an airplane can be a very scary place for a child, that is why I did not call for whupping her.
She needed to be calmed down and obviously she was not calming down on the plane.
Wait, the article says only that they flew home the next day. I don't know who decided which flight the family would take.
To the parents of tantrumy threes and their apologists, the counter for TS cards is over there on the left. As I read it both parents were seated together and the kid was to sit by itself. If this is the case, I can see why the poor kid pulled a tantrum....probably a first flight...very scary for a 3 year old....nothing in the story about whether they tried having the kid sit with mommy or daddy and if that is the case, it comes directly back to parents who care about themselves and NOT about others on the plane and probably elsewhere. Also, flight schedules are tightly coordinated and I hate to think about the ripple effect that did happen as a result of allowing this child to continue its tantrum. In this situation I think the airline was being very generous.
I've got a better idea. AirTran should send the family a bill for the cost of the 15 minute delay. Fuel, salaries for the crew and the ground folks at the other end (at union overtime rates). If the family complains, then the other passengers ought to consider sending the lovely family a bill as well.
Remember, 15 minutes is worth $150 to a $600/hour lawyer, even more for an MD.
Where did you hear that they banned them for 24 hours?
When we were in Florida, the news reports say that THEY chose not to fly home that day because they wanted NON-STOP flights.