Where does a plane’s flight crew draw the line between a mere annoyance and someone so distracting they need to be removed from the plane. That’s the question being asked after a family says they were taken off a JetBlue flight because their 2-year-old daughter threw a tantrum while boarding.
The family was boarding the JetBlue flight from the Turks and Caicos to Boston when their youngest child refused to sit in her seat.
But even after the parents managed to get her seated and buckled in, a flight attendant told them the plane was being turned back to the gate and they were being taken off the flight.
“We did what we were asked to do. We weren’t belligerent, drunk, angry or screaming. We were just having a hard time struggling with our children,” said the mom.
Since there were no other flights to Boston that night, the family had to book a hotel room. Between that and rebooking their flight, they say the ordeal cost them an additional $2,000.
JetBlue issued the following statement regarding the situation:
Flight 850… had customers that did not comply with crewmember instructions for a prolonged time period. The Captain elected to remove the customers involved for the safety of all customers and crewmembers on board.
“I don’t know that I could blame JetBlue, to be totally fair,” said the mom. “I just feel like it’s airplane travel today in general. I was certainly upset by the way this flight attendant handled the situation. As a result, yeah, I would probably try to avoid JetBlue in the future.”
Airline grounds family for fussy toddler [WJAR]
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Airlines should be required to offer a certain percentage of their flights as “child-free.” The problem, of course, is that everyone would take them, leaving other flights half empty except for people traveling with kids. Demonstrating that *nobody* wants to be forced into company with other people’s children.
Got kids? Drive. Leave them with the relatives. Don’t plan trips that require them to fly. Have their pediatricians prescribe sedatives. DO… WHATEVER… IT… TAKES! Their behavior is your responsibility.
I kind of think (assume) that the parents likely never controlled their child very much to begin with.
Not all small children are bad. I sat next to a 3 year old boy on a 13 hour flight to Hong Kong and he was quiet and considerate the entire flight, he was flying with a single parent who had also had good verbal control. I don’t know if it was because they were Chinese, if the parent was strict or the kid was simply well behaved; he was however bright and intelligent. They didn’t talk much either, as they didn’t speak English and I don’t speak Chinese. I had the window seat, the boy in the middle and the mother in the isle. It was almost like having an empty seat next to me.
With that said… I have no problem with drugging people on flights. I‚Äôve seen many people, especially children melt down and be horrible, if they were drugged then they and everyone would be happy. And before you say anything‚Ķ I like to make sure I am well medicated on any flight over six hours too.
So, for the $2,000. Consider that the extra cost of raising a child. They are expensive. If they don’t behave and you don’t control your children, then expect to pay, and pay, and pay.
The first time it happened it was a left eye bulge, hand over my mouth, other hand around my throat squeezing gently…
Apparently that was my mom’s “be silent or I WILL silence you” pose…
Eventually we got it down to a science me just seeing the left eye bulge and I became like one of those fainting goats…
Oooh-wee! Lots of intolerant people in the world, man. Parents don’t “control” their kids. Children have their own ideas and a 2 year old is incapable of controling his/her impulses for very long. I’ve travelled with my daughter from ORD to PHL since she was 2 months old (not a long flight, true). So far, she’s been a dream. I schedule our flights around her nap time but she’s 2 1/2 now and is quite the loud-mouth, so who knows if she’ll cooperate next time.
But should I not take her to see my family once a year because she may have a 10 minute freak-out? There are worse things to tolerate, IMHO. Like not being able to afford a flight.
A little goodwill now and then goes a long way b/c every single one of us will be “that guy” one day: the guy who drinks too much, they guy who is too loud on the phone, the guy who takes up too much room, etc.
People could stand to be a bit more tolerant, yes, but in equal measure, people could also stand to be a bit more humble about their disruptive behaviors. An apology to nearby passengers often goes a long way towards deflating these situations.
I was in a similar situation on a flight last year, two kids seated behind me, one kicked my seat for a long time, and his sibling refused to stay buckled in and screamed bloody murder during our descent. The parents laughed it off upon landing and never so much as said sorry for the noise to their seatmates.
So the news story says the kid wouldn’t sit down, and (by law) couldn’t be held for take off. Sounds like a pretty normal “we aren’t allowed by law to take off like this” sort of thing. The decision probably had already been made by the time the kid calmed down. This exact thing happened a year or two ago. Kid didn’t want to wear the seat belt and got the family booted.
While I feel for the family, if you’re having that much trouble controlling your child, perhaps its not the right time to fly? This is a legal issue for the airline and not just them being a bully on a judgement call.
To these parents: It’s called Dramamine. They call it a motion sickness pill, but it also puts you to sleep, for the win! I have an 8 year old, a 5 year old, and a 2 year old, I’ve flown on an airplane with them, and think it’s insane to fly with a kid that age without drugging her up first…
As for all those who get worked up over screaming kids on a flight: You’re doing it wrong! They’re called Bose QuietComfort headphones. You’re not a true frequent flier without a pair! Besides, it’s not like the airliner is quiet even when there’s not screaming kids on-board.
As for “safety” as much as I am amused by the security theater in the terminal, I am also amused by the safety theater in the aircraft. If the airplane crashes at 500 mph, I’m frakked. My seatbelt won’t save me, or anyone else. If the plane goes down in the water, and “Sully” Sullenberger isn’t at the controls, I’m frakked.
Not the first time he talked about it, but here’s an early Letterman “Screaming Baby Express”, on an airline whose initials happen to be TWA.
http://www.comictube.com/video/324/Letterman-on-Carson–Part-1
Finally someone kicked a screaming kid off a plane! I plan to book on Jetblue. Why should 150 people be disturbed on a flight because people fly with children too small to behave or unable to? Fly with the brats late at night to keep them quiet. I can’t tell you how many flights I have had to put up with screaming little urchins that parents won’t quiet down.
That assumes that they will sleep on the plane. Then, you’ll be squealing “who brings a baby on a plane at niiiiight?”
I’m sure this situation sucks for everyone involved but if the result was the captain turning around an entire flight full of people, this was more than just having a little trouble controlling a child. And if a child is not only refusing to be seated, but also making enough noise that people can’t hear the safety announcements, it sucks, but this is justified.
As an aside, this woman’s credentials don’t really have much to do with this. I don’t know her or her parenting style, but poor parenting is not the exclusive territory of the “untrained”. And I have known a couple of child psychologists whose children are completely messed up, so that child-oriented degree holds no guarantees.
This kind of thing is one of the reasons I fly almost exclusively JetBlue.
So what if kids cry on a flight? For heaven’s sake, have a little empathy for the families who are in fact more miserable than you are with their crying infants, as they have to deal with not just all the noise but all the judgy entitled people around them. Wear headphones. Wear earplugs. I swear, you will be okay, even if you are inconvenienced, you will survive. Sounds like YOU are the special snowflakes in this situation.
I don’t have kids, but if I had the option I would happily sit next to the families traveling with infants just to be a friendly face to them amidst a plane full of grouches. Life is inconvenient. It’s much easier to be nice and empathetic than to waste your whole plane trip stewing and angry about babies being babies. It’s like being angry at water for being wet. What a waste of emotional energy.
I promise you, feeling a little empathy and a little kindness greatly cuts down on the inconvenience in that situation because you can still smile and you have the satisfaction of knowing that you were a kind face in a miserable situation.
To any parents traveling with children, please know that there are some childless people on the flight who feel only empathy for you and who would happily sit next to you if that were an option to help buffer you from glaring grumpy people who would rather complain and suffer then put on some headphones. If there was a checkbox when you bought your flight asking if you’d be willing to sit in a row with an infant, I’d check it, it’s no skin off my nose.
“If there was a checkbox when you bought your flight asking if you’d be willing to sit in a row with an infant, I’d check it, it’s no skin off my nose.”
Excellent idea! Then I would be able to avoid the parents who expect me to help them with their kids who are trying to crawl all over me. And, yes, that happened the last time I flew because the mother couldn’t keep her toddler on her lap.
Good on the pilot getting the kid off the flight. But JetBlue should have waived re-booking fees.
Did anyone see this family on the “Today” show on Monday? The whole family was there. The two year old was out of control again, shouting, squirming, jumping around and wouldn’t stay on her father’s lap when he tried to pin her down. During the whole time, the mother had the quieter younger kid on her lap while she was being interviewed saying how wrong the airline was.
The dad never once reprimanded the two year old for not behaving. All he did was silently try to make her sit still. She knew who had the upper hand and it wasn’t him.
If you are going to bring your kid on TV to talk about your kid’s good behavior, don’t bring the kid.
JetBlue will be the ONLY jet I fly on now. Epic kudos.