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w22dheartlivie 
"Kitty Lover"
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 Posted - 07/14/2007 : 01:44:00
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070712/ap_on_re_us/toddler_booted_1
Thu Jul 12, 2:15 PM ET
ATLANTA - A woman said she and her toddler son were kicked off a plane after she refused a flight attendant's request to medicate her son to get him to quiet down and stop saying "Bye bye, plane."
Kate Penland, of suburban Atlanta, said she and her 19-month-old son, Garren, were flying from Atlanta to Oklahoma last month on a Continental Express flight that made a stop in Houston.
As the plane was taxiing in Houston en route to Oklahoma, "he started saying 'Bye, bye plane,' Penland told WSB-TV in Atlanta. The flight attendant objected, she said.
"At the end of her speech, she leaned over the gentleman beside me and said, 'It's not funny anymore. You need to shut your baby up,'" Penland told WSB-TV in Atlanta.
When Penland asked the woman if she was joking, she said the stewardess replied, "You know, it's called Baby Benadryl."
"And I said, 'Well, I'm not going to drug my child so you have a pleasant flight,'" Penland told the TV station.
Penland said other passengers began speaking up on her behalf, and the flight attendant announced they were turning around and that Penland and Garren were going to be taken off the plane.
Penland and her son were let off the plane and did not complete the trip to Oklahoma, said Kristy Nicholas, spokeswoman for Express Jet Airlines, which flies as Continental Express on behalf of Continental Airlines.
Attempts by the Associated Press to reach Penland under a telephone listing that matched her last name were unsuccessful.
"I was crying, I was upset and I was thinking, 'What am I going to do? I don't have anything with me, I don't have any more diapers for the baby, no juice, no milk," Penland told WSB.
Nicholas said, "We received Ms. Penland's letter expressing her concerns and intend to investigate its contents." |
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Sean 
"Necrosphenisciform anthropophagist."
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Posted - 07/14/2007 : 02:41:46
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Wow! I know that kids can be annoying on planes, but the solution to that is called 'ear plugs'.  |
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w22dheartlivie
"Kitty Lover"
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Posted - 07/14/2007 : 02:47:11
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Definitely, you save the Baby Benadryl for later when you're HOME and they don't shut up!!!  |
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silly 
"That rabbit's DYNAMITE."
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Posted - 07/14/2007 : 03:12:00
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Airline personnel have forgotten who is paying whom when we fly.
I'd teach my child a few more phrases for the next flight... |
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w22dheartlivie
"Kitty Lover"
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Posted - 07/14/2007 : 04:06:18
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| I have to wonder if in a way, it's all connected to Homeland Security. We've all seen the comedies where innocent people get mistreated by airline personnel because of the added precautions of HS (Anger Management comes to mind). It's probably unfair of me to say it, but I will anyway. How often do personnel become more assertive and controlling because they feel they can now that we're being so uptight about flight? An annoyed flight attendant may have been censured in the past for being rude, but what about now? Sure, they're supposed to be working for us, the customer is always right, but only if it's okayed by some government bureaucracy. *sigh* |
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Sean
"Necrosphenisciform anthropophagist."
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Posted - 07/14/2007 : 07:54:32
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quote:
Originally posted by wildhartlivie
I have to wonder if in a way, it's all connected to Homeland Security.
I'd say you're probably right. It's called post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The event that caused the stress was 9/11. Normal sane humans would have got over it a long time ago, but the US government is doing everything possible to make sure that people DON'T get over it by reminding them off the stressful event at every opportunity. Not only that, it's telling the masses that life has changed dramatically and permanently, and that they should NEVER get over it.
If someone came home from work six years ago and found their spouse chopped up into little pieces and each piece attached to the wall with a nailgun, they should have got over it by now. With the support of friends and family, they'd eventually put it to one side (although obviously they'd never forget). They'd learn how to laugh again and how to enjoy the good things in life again. But, if friends and family tell them every day that what happened to them was a life-changing event, that they will never get over it, that they should never get over it, and that life will never be the same again, then will they ever get over it? I'd say many wouldn't.
So, what of post 9/11 USA? PTSD is enshrined in law (Patriot Act), nobody is allowed to forget (when the topic of Iraq comes up the unrelated event of 9/11 is always mentioned), there are daily reminders that the boogie-man got them once and the boogie-man MIGHT GET THEM AGAIN! Airport officials and airline staff have a new job - hunting down the boogie-men.
Here's the Wiki link on PTSD. My view is that any individual or organisation that stops a plane, returns to the terminal, and boots off the offending 19-month old for repeatedly saying "Bye, bye plane" needs a psychiatrist. |
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w22dheartlivie
"Kitty Lover"
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Posted - 07/14/2007 : 09:03:01
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| I'm fairly well versed in PTSD, but I don't think I'd ever considered it as a nationwide government induced event. I don't doubt it in the least. |
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ChocolateLady
"500 Chocolate Delights"
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Posted - 07/14/2007 : 09:52:42
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What I wonder is just how long does it take to taxi out to the runway in Houston? I mean, a minute or two of "bye, bye, plane" might be a tad annoying but I can't imagine that it would be so much to drive the attandant so crazy as to make her turn the plane around and kick them off.
And anyway, couldn't she have given the kid a bottle or something to eat instead? That usually shuts kids up. |
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Whippersnapper. 
"A fourword thinking guy."
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Posted - 07/14/2007 : 10:20:19
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I think threatening the child with proprietary medicine is disgusting! 
What's wrong with a funnel and a large bottle of gin? 
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w22dheartlivie
"Kitty Lover"
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Posted - 07/14/2007 : 10:20:21
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| Another good point. In the article, it says she was put off the plane without extra diapers, juice or milk, so I'm not sure if the baby bag was checked (it wasn't a long flight from Houston to Oklahoma) or they just didn't give it to her. But the flight attendant has a whole cart full of juices and even bottled water. Myself, I get a kick out of being around my nephew and hearing him say "birdie!! birdie!!" a thousand times a day. The woman apparently hated kids. |
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ChocolateLady
"500 Chocolate Delights"
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Posted - 07/14/2007 : 12:12:01
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Wait a minute:
quote:
Atlanta to Oklahoma last month on a Continental Express flight that made a stop in Houston.
As the plane was taxiing in Houston en route to Oklahoma...
Okay, a flight from Atlanta to Houston takes about two hours. The Houston to Oklahoma leg is another hour and a half flight. From what I can see, Continental's ATL-IAH-OKC plan takes just over 4 hours, if they're on the connection that has only a 45 minute layover in Houston. There's no way a 19 month old kid can go that amount of time without a diaper change. Where were his diapers, I wonder? Something is sounding very strange here.
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w22dheartlivie
"Kitty Lover"
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Posted - 07/14/2007 : 12:15:10
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| In some other reports I read, it said that they had been delayed in Houston for 11 hours and she didn't have enough to last that long a period of time. |
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ChocolateLady
"500 Chocolate Delights"
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Posted - 07/14/2007 : 12:52:19
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quote:
Originally posted by wildhartlivie
In some other reports I read, it said that they had been delayed in Houston for 11 hours and she didn't have enough to last that long a period of time.
Well, that would explain that. But either way, the attendant was just plain wrong.
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Sean
"Necrosphenisciform anthropophagist."
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Posted - 07/14/2007 : 13:09:29
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quote:
Originally posted by ChocolateLady
But either way, the attendant was just plain wrong.
I'd be rather surprised if flight attendants have the power to turn a plane around because a kid is being noisy. |
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w22dheartlivie
"Kitty Lover"
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Posted - 07/14/2007 : 13:50:13
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| One of the more in-depth stories said that the flight attendant told the captain this woman had threatened her. Other passengers nearby said they heard no such thing and she was not arrested or questioned. The airline put her up in a hotel room overnight and sent her on to Oklahoma. *shrug* |
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ChocolateLady
"500 Chocolate Delights"
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Posted - 07/14/2007 : 14:10:36
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quote:
Originally posted by wildhartlivie
One of the more in-depth stories said that the flight attendant told the captain this woman had threatened her. Other passengers nearby said they heard no such thing and she was not arrested or questioned. The airline put her up in a hotel room overnight and sent her on to Oklahoma. *shrug*
In which case, that particular account of the story was one very bad piece of journalism. Not all the facts were included or they were not properly investigated. If all these accounts are showing other information, then I'm going to rate that article very poorly. That's no way to treat your reading public!
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It's called Baby Benadryl
