Remember how there was much confusion over exactly what happened with the crying baby who was reportedly taken from her mother during a Southwest Airlines flight? The police said the flight attendant took the baby to the back of the plane, while a Southwest rep said she just offered to hold the baby for a second. Now, the attendant is saying she “made a mistake,” but it wasn’t her actions that were mistaken, it was what she originally told police.

The attendant admits that she had originally told the police that “We took the child to the back of the plane,” but now remembers it differently, and more in line with how the airline rep detailed things.

Rather than take the baby away from her parents, the attendant says she merely offered to hold the baby for a moment to give the tense parents a break.

“I picked the baby up from her, and the baby quit crying,” she told the Dallas Morning News.

The baby didn’t go to the back of the plane until the father stood up, took the baby back from the attendant and then asked if he could take the baby to the rear of the plane, where he rocked the baby to sleep.

“I said, ‘Come on back,’ ” the woman now recalls.

What the attendant’s interview didn’t clear up was the question of whether or not the baby’s parents had slapped or hit the baby to stop it from crying.

Immediately after the incident, she’d told police that she’d seen the mom slap the child in the face and on the legs with an open hand and noted the little girl had a black eye, which the parents subsequently have claimed is from a dog bite.

According to the police, the mother later admitted that she had “popped” the tired tot when the child kicked her, because “when she’s screaming and she can’t hear me say no, that’s the only way I can get her to stop.”

Flight attendant describes full story with crying baby on Southwest Airlines jet [DallasNews.com]

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