Family Kicked Off Air Tran Flight For Toddler's Temper Tantrum

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In summary, the AirTran flight crew had to remove a 2-year-old child from the aircraft because of her incessant screaming and hitting of her parents. The child was appropriately compensated by the airline.
  • #1
larkspur
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I feel for the parents but I also sympathize with the flight crew.

http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2007Jan23/0,4670,FlightTantrum,00.html"
 
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  • #2
Sounds like they have a seriously spoiled brat. If the kid was "crawling around under the seat and hitting the parents" and the plane had already been delayed 15 minutes, it's time to get them off the plane. Most people have connections they have to make to other flights, delaying the plane any further could have caused the other passengers serious problems.
 
  • #3
Evo said:
Sounds like they have a seriously spoiled brat. If the kid was "crawling around under the seat and hitting the parents" and the plane had already been delayed 15 minutes, it's time to get them off the plane. Most people have connections they have to make to other flights, delaying the plane any further could have caused the other passengers serious problems.


I agree they should have been kicked off. Maybe they will seek some parenting classes or call Super Nanny for help. I doubt it though...
 
  • #4
112 passengers * 15 minutes = 1680 people-minutes = 28 people-hours of delay. That's a heck of a lot of suffering, and only furthers my ongoing cause, for a total ban of toddlers and rattlesnakes on airplanes.
 
  • #5
(Why does Rach3 have a koala as an avatar? Tune in next week to find out!)
 
  • #6
Ya know, I was all set to say that it is tough to know how bad it was without seeing it, but dang, it is tough to argue with that math!
 
  • #7
Rach3 said:
That's a heck of a lot of suffering, and only furthers my ongoing cause, for a total ban of toddlers and rattlesnakes on airplanes.

:rofl: That reminds me of what we (a student and I) did on the last trip to a conference. We had a poster tube to carry with all the posters for the lab, and for some reason, seemed to keep getting bugged by small children about what was in the tube. So, we started telling them our pet snake was in the tube. :biggrin: You should've seen the expression on the kids' faces when we told them that. :bugeye:

And, I completely agree with Evo, that these parents definitely are raising a spoiled brat if they can't get the kid under control after 15 minutes of delay, and are still complaining they needed more time to "comfort" the child. Comfort the child AFTER you have her plunked into that seat and belted in. At least the passengers didn't have to listen to her screaming for the entire flight, because that much fuss over just sitting in her seat and wearing a seatbelt would indicate that there would be equal fuss over everything else. I don't even understand how it's so difficult to get a kid into a seatbelt in this day and age...every kid under 5 or 6 has to ride in a car with a carseat, so they should be completely used to this routine by 3.
 
  • #8
It seems the family was adequately compensated for being removed, the father saying they would never fly on AirTran again just comes across as silly.
 
  • #9
theCandyman said:
It seems the family was adequately compensated for being removed, the father saying they would never fly on AirTran again just comes across as silly.

Yeah, they were pretty much rewarded with free tickets for letting their kid act up. I hope that doesn't catch on. But, hey, if families with bratty kids don't want to fly AirTran, fine with me...I'll start flying them more often. :wink:

I have to wonder how long TOTAL this kid was throwing her tantrum for, since families with small children are usually allowed to board first to give them time to settle the kids in before the plane is full of other people. Even on a small AirTran plane, they usually get the pre-boarding done about 5 min before the other passengers board, another 10 or 15 min for the boarding, yet this carrying on continued long enough to delay the plane 15 min?
 
  • #10
Sounds like the airline was completely right to throw them off the flight. I hate going places like a nice restaurant, movie...ect and having to listen to bratty kids throw tantrums the entire time. If I had done that when I was young I would have been smacked, and rightly so.
 
  • #11
scorpa said:
Sounds like the airline was completely right to throw them off the flight. I hate going places like a nice restaurant, movie...ect and having to listen to bratty kids throw tantrums the entire time. If I had done that when I was young I would have been smacked, and rightly so.

I would have had it even worse...my mom would have been the one dragging me off the plane and the vacation would have been cancelled.

I only remember my sister throwing a tantrum once in a store (I guess I was too young when I tried it to remember), and that was the first and last time it happened. She started, and mom told her if she continued carrying on, she would be carried out of the store with everyone watching and would be taken right back home...no getting whatever it was she was crying she wanted, and no getting anything else either. And Mom sure did keep her word. :eek: That's all it takes, one walk of shame out of the store while tucked under mom's arm and a quick termination of going out shopping with mom. Misbehaving out in public was simply not an option for us. Oh, and if we spotted another kid misbehaving and wanted to know why we couldn't do the same thing, mom had the answer nobody could argue with..."Obviously that kid's mom doesn't love him/her as much as I love you, because she's letting them turn into a bad kid nobody will like when they get older." :bugeye: How do you argue with that?
 
  • #12
Moonbear said:
I would have had it even worse...my mom would have been the one dragging me off the plane and the vacation would have been cancelled.

Haha my parents would have done the same thing. I'd have been dragged off that plane so fast my head spun...then I'd have gotten a good 'licken' out in the parking lot. Good thing I knew better. I remember seeing a kid throw a fit in a store one time and I asked my mom if I was ever that bad in public...and she was like nope you knew better than to pull stunts like that.
 
  • #13
Open the door at 37,000 feet. The brat will be sucked out and weeeeeeeeee SPLAT. Problem sovled.
 
  • #14
cyrusabdollahi said:
Open the door at 37,000 feet. The brat will be sucked out and weeeeeeeeee SPLAT. Problem sovled.

Haha I like the way you think.
 
  • #15
It worked in james bond, and gold finger was really fat.
 
  • #16
WHen we took our son Simon on his first long flight, he was 1-1/2 years old, and at that cranky, teething age. We were so anxious about how he would handle the flight we even brought along some drugs (just benedryl, actually). When we asked a doctor about how much this little guy should be given, the doctor was aghast that we would consider medicating our son just for convenience.

Luckily it was a non-issue; he slept after only 5 minutes of whining. Otherwise, either way, we were headed for a cross-country guilt-trip.
 
  • #17
I'm not too sure about that "spoiled brat" theory. My kids were very easy going and pleasant almost all of the time. They rarely went into tantrums. But when they did, there was no way to predict it was coming and no way to calm them down once it did. Patience, when patience was hard to evoke, was the only cure. I would take the tantrummer out of the hearing of other people while my wife and the other kid sat and finished what they were doing. It could take 15 or 20 minutes to calm down. Threats, punishements, rewards and begging had no effect on this time period.

As for kicking the family off the plane, this is extreme. Tantrums rarely last very long. Perhaps there were passengers who were complaining, but I have never seen that happen myself.
 
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  • #18
jimmysnyder said:
I'm not too sure about that "spoiled brat" theory. My kids were very easy going and pleasant almost all of the time. They rarely went into tantrums. But when they did, there was no way to predict it was coming and no way to calm them down once it did. Patience, when patience was hard to evoke, was the only cure. I would take the tantrummer out of the hearing of other people while my wife and the other kid sat and finished what they were doing. It could take 15 or 20 minutes to calm down. Threats, punishements, rewards and begging had no effect on this time period.

As for kicking the family off the plane, this is extreme. Tantrums rarely last very long. Perhaps there were passengers who were complaining, but I have never seen that happen myself.

Whaaa? What ever happened to hitting your kid when they misbehave. Smack them in the bottom and then tell them to stop crying or they will get another smack. Tantrum over.
 
  • #19
jimmysnyder said:
As for kicking the family off the plane, this is extreme. Tantrums rarely last very long. Perhaps there were passengers who were complaining, but I have never seen that happen myself.

They were delaying take-off because they weren't getting the kid into her seat! If she's going to scream, fine, but pick her up and put her in the seat and strap the seatbelt around her so the plane can get moving. If the kid is small enough to climb under the seat of a plane, she's small enough to be lifted up by an adult and sat in her seat, whether she is happy about it or not.
 
  • #20
Chi Meson said:
WHen we took our son Simon on his first long flight, he was 1-1/2 years old, and at that cranky, teething age. We were so anxious about how he would handle the flight we even brought along some drugs (just benedryl, actually).

Our kids had motion sickness problems when they were little. To counteract this, we would give them Dramamine at the onset of a long trip. Our pediatrician told us how to reduce the adult dose to little kid size. Dramamine is very similar to Benadryl: They both induce drowsiness. Not only was the car clean, it was also quiet.
 
  • #21
cyrusabdollahi said:
Whaaa? What ever happened to hitting your kid when they misbehave. Smack them in the bottom and then tell them to stop crying or they will get another smack. Tantrum over.
My bad, I misspelled punishment. I speak from experience, it didn't work. It's not working for Bush either, but I had the sense not to go to surge.
 
  • #22
My Dad always said he was an expert on child rearing until he had children of his own...
 
  • #23
Rach3 said:
112 passengers * 15 minutes = 1680 people-minutes = 28 people-hours of delay. That's a heck of a lot of suffering, and only furthers my ongoing cause, for a total ban of toddlers and rattlesnakes on airplanes.

From the item as reported, I think that the airline was in the right. I would like to point out, however, that the article doesn't specify why the flight had already been delayed by 15 minutes; it might have had nothing to do with the kid and the tantrum had barely gotten started. Still, a further delay would be unacceptable, and no one would want to listen to a squalling brat even if she did get buckled in.
 
  • #24
When I flew to california the airplane was packed with little kids. There was one little girl infront of me who was about 2. She had nice big blue eyes and was waiving to everyone. She was a great passenger the whole way. The only time another girl started crying was the one sitting behind me because she had to go pee and we were about to land, so being young I can understand her wanting to cry. Landing takes about 20 mins and your suck in your seat until the airplane comes to a stop at the gate.
 
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  • #25
I agree with strapping her in her seat and "Let's go!"

The screaming and crying while in the seat can be endured for a few minutes and the stronger the tantrum, the more likely the kid will exhaust herself and fall asleep, especially at the oxygen level planes use while in flight.

Missing a connecting flight while waiting out a kid's tantrum just won't work.
 
  • #26
cyrusabdollahi said:
When I flew to california the airplane was packed with little kids. There was one little girl infront of me who was about 2. She had nice big blue eyes and was waiving to everyone. She was a great passenger the whole way. The only time another girl started crying was the one sitting behind me because she had to go pee and we were about to land, so being young I can understand her wanting to cry. Landing takes about 20 mins and your suck in your seat until the airplane comes to a stop at the gate.

For the most part, kids on flights with me have been good too. Of course the babies cry during take-off and landing if the pressure changes hurt their ears since they don't know to swallow to get them to pop again. Usually the flight attendants are good about helping parents out in those situations and recommend they feed the babies a bottle then or give them a pacifier to suck on so they swallow, and even give a lollipop or something like that to a slightly older toddler. A sweet treat can go a long way toward getting them to spend time sucking so their ears don't hurt.

Only once was I on a plane with a kid throwing a temper tantrum, and boy did everyone want to strangle that child. It was approaching landing, so I just figured their capacity for sitting still had worn out, or their ears were hurting or something, but the person in the seat next to me who was a parent said, nope, that was nothing but a plain old temper tantrum (I guess the cries sound different when you've heard a few). Still, since we were about to land, the parents managed to get the kid into a seat and although he was squalling away, he was buckled up and ready for landing.

That's the difference here. Kids will cry, especially if told they have to sit still, or if they're overtired (and heck, when you have to get up early to get out and to an airport, everyone is tired and cranky), or when surrounded by a bunch of strangers, and sure, the crying annoys everyone on the plane, but people know this is par for the course of flying with small children and usually feel sorry for the parents. But, to not even enforce the basic rules of making the kid sit in their seat so the plane can get off the ground...that's a parent problem, not a kid problem.

Oh, and Chi Meson, I was shocked the first time I saw a parent giving their kids benedryl on a flight to make them sleep! It was an overseas flight, and they thought it was easier than making the kid behave that long. But, I'm sure that nobody would have really objected if they let the kid run up and down the aisle for a little while once we were at altitude...we all wish we were still small enough to do that. On the other hand, since then I've heard people advocate it to keep their ears from hurting too, so I just don't know. I do laugh quite hard that a couple friends of mine always fly with their infants/chidren in first class...they have a ton of frequent flier miles from business related travel, so always upgrade to first class. Hee hee...I can just imagine the expressions on the other first class travelers who probably don't expect to have children so close...and the relief on the coach passengers when they realize that for once, they aren't the ones who have to listen to the kids. :biggrin:
 
  • #27
Moonbear said:
Only once was I on a plane with a kid throwing a temper tantrum, and boy did everyone want to strangle that child. It was approaching landing, so I just figured their capacity for sitting still had worn out, or their ears were hurting or something, but the person in the seat next to me who was a parent said, nope, that was nothing but a plain old temper tantrum (I guess the cries sound different when you've heard a few). Still, since we were about to land, the parents managed to get the kid into a seat and although he was squalling away, he was buckled up and ready for landing.
Yep. There's all sorts of cries. Sometimes they cry just because they enjoy the sound of it. Those tend to turn into a monotonous cry that's almost comforting - you're lucky if it doesn't lull you off to sleep before it lulls them off to sleep. But, then again, crying never really bothered me.

I think that might be part of why I didn't have to endure a lot of tantrums. If the tantrums don't get much response, then they at least have to be satisfying to the kid, and that winds up being a slightly different kind of thing.
 
  • #28
BobG said:
The screaming and crying while in the seat can be endured for a few minutes and the stronger the tantrum, the more likely the kid will exhaust herself and fall asleep, especially at the oxygen level planes use while in flight.

Good point. If they had just buckled her in, she'd have probably just cried herself to sleep, especially if the tantrum was originating from being over-tired. That's how I ended up with a picture of my nephew sleeping on the dog's bed at my sister's house. He decided to throw a fit because we weren't letting him get underfoot while his dad was climbing a ladder to get stuff out of the attic (not good for the kid or his dad should he get in the way at the wrong time...he was destined to have little fingers stepped on or to knock dad off a ladder or something else bad). So, without any better ideas, I plunked him down on the pillow that was the dog's bed and told him the crying wasn't going to get him anywhere. A few minutes later, all got quiet, and I checked on him to find he had pulled over the dog's towel and tucked himself into sleep on the dog bed. He had just gotten over-tired with me visiting and all the activity going on and then cranky when he wasn't allowed to do what the grown-ups were doing, but just making him sit still was all it took to get him to fall asleep (and in all honesty, I didn't know the pillow was the dog's bed when I set him on it...I figured it was for him to sit on the floor until I noticed the proximity of the dog dish and my sister asked why I had put him on the dog bed :redface:). I'll remind him of that when he's grown and married and complaining about being in the doghouse. :biggrin:
 
  • #30
Kid should've got a clip round the ear.
 
  • #31
Chi Meson said:
WHen we took our son Simon ...
What the heck kind of name is that??

Oh, I get it - it's short for psi meson! Phew!
 

1. What happened on the Air Tran flight with the family and toddler?

According to reports, a family was kicked off an Air Tran flight after their toddler had a temper tantrum during boarding.

2. Why was the family kicked off the flight?

The family was kicked off the flight because their toddler was crying and refusing to sit in his seat during boarding, causing a delay and disruption for other passengers.

3. Was the family given any warnings before being kicked off the flight?

Yes, the flight attendants reportedly gave the family several warnings and asked them to control their child's behavior before ultimately deciding to remove them from the flight.

4. Is it common for families to be kicked off flights due to a child's behavior?

It is not common, but it does happen in certain situations where a child's behavior is causing a disturbance or safety concern for other passengers.

5. What steps can parents take to prevent their child's behavior from causing problems on a flight?

Parents can prepare their child for the flight by explaining the rules and expectations beforehand, bringing toys or activities to keep them occupied, and addressing any potential issues or triggers before boarding. They can also ask for assistance from flight attendants if needed.

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