Flying Nightmare

Have you ever been annoyed on a flight by a child who would not be seated or listen to instructions from the parent and flight crew? I have. Undisciplined kids and their dysfunctional parents sometimes think that little Johnny can scream, climb on the seats. obstruct the aisle etc. Of course it is not the place of other passengers to calm the bad behaving child or to hint to the parents that he or she should manage the child better. The flight crew 's job is to do that.
If they don't do so, the passengers have a long and upsetting flight, unquestionably unfair to them since they pay for their seats and expect pleasantness on board. Flight attendants often deal with obnoxious passengers who won't listen to instructions by kicking them off the plane. But what about small children s who behave badly? Can an airline remove a child for the same kind of unruly behavior? After all, kids are immature and not able to reason as adults are.
A few weeks ago I read of that kind unruly child behavior on an Air Tran flight that involved a Massachusetts couple and their crying 3-year-old daughter. Julie and Gerry Kulesza and daughter Elly were removed from the flight when the girl refused to take her seat before takeoff, airline officials said Tuesday. But her parents said they just needed a little more time to calm her down. But Air Tran says the girl was too out of control to allow the plane to fly with her in that condition.
The Kuleszas planned to fly to Boston on Jan. 14 from Fort Myers after a four-day visit with the girl's paternal grandparents. She was removed because "she was climbing under the seat and hitting the parents and wouldn't get in her seat" during boarding, according to AirTran spokeswoman Judy Graham-Weaver said. AirTran officials say they were only following 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," Graham-Weaver said. But mom Julie Kulesza said: "We weren't giving an opportunity to hold her, console her or anything. Elly was sitting in front of our seat crying," she said. "The attendant motioned to a seat and asked if we purchased it for her."
They had paid for the seat for their spoiled daughter, but she wanted no part of ti and mom and dad don't seem to have the normal parental control over Elly. Dad Gerry said another attendant then approached the family and told him: "You need to get her in control and in her seat." Seems reasonable to me. Don't you agree?
But the parents told the attendants they were trying to do that. Julie Kulesza said she asked the attendants if Elly could sit on her lap, but they said no because government safety rules do not allow it. At that point the child and family were removed (I would have cheered if I had been one of the ticketed passengers sitting and waiting for that kid to behave, delayed to my destination and annoyed by the parent and child). The family flew home the next day after the airline issued new seats on another flight, and offered them three round trip tickets anywhere the airline flies, Graham-Weaver said.
But that's too little, too late for the Kuleszas. The father said they would never fly AirTran again. Ha! Lucky for the passengers of Air Tran not to run into that group again. But wait! Maybe I am cynical, but I smell a lawsuit coming. There are surely plenty of lawyers who will represent the terrible trio in court as they sue for "emotional trauma" or some such foolishness. Perhaps both the bad behavior of that family and the idea that they were entitled to disturb others when they flew is just another example of the rudeness in society today. Too many people are not only rude when in public, but they are clue less to the fact that their behavior is bad.
Thank God that family didn't have a cell phone when on board during that incident. It would have brought forth another of my cell rants. Hehe You are thankful I am not cell ranting today???????