Flight attendant stuffs baby in overhead bin

[Liberal_in_LA]

seems like the flight attendant was just joking

Flight attendant stuffs baby in overhead bin

An Australian airline gave a flight attendant the boot for putting a baby in an overhead compartment and closing the door.

You might suspect that the Virgin Blue attendant did this out of rage as he was trying to quiet a crying child. Not the case. Actually 17-month-old Riley Williamson wasn't fussing at all on a flight from Fiji to Sydney. He was engaged in a playful game of peek-a-boo with his father when the attendant decided to join in, scooped up the baby, and put him in the overhead locker. At least that's the story Riley's mother, Natalie Williamson, gave Melbourne's Sunday Herald Sun.

Virgin Blue admits that an incident occurred. The airline fired the flight attendant and offered to reimburse Ms. Williamson for the full amount of two return flights.

But Ms. Williams says that she's too traumatized to fly again.


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfmoms/detail?entry_id=84451#ixzz1FwhkHlY5

[joeybee12]

1. Devastated?

I don't know...sounds like the flight attendant shouldn't have done it, but there was no harm meant.

[Kurovski]

3. You can't sue for "no harm meant."

[varkam]

23. Sure you can.

Negligence, unintentional infliction of emotional distress, battery, etc etc....

[Kurovski]

30. I'm saying that the woman is wanting to sue, and preparing her case.

I was too dry, or vague. Inflection is not delivered in type. :-)

[varkam]

34. Ohhh, well in addition to the causes you mentioned...

I am also too dense :D

[Kurovski]

35. I know that to be

a complete falsehood. :-)

[varkam]

37. Well now you're lying to me, but please...

continue. It appeals to my sense of vanity and ego :D

[Kurovski]

92. Your octopus

is sexy and your name is delicious.

There will be no way to separate reality from non-reality!

[varkam]

111. If my non-reality-reality is this sexy and delicious...

count me in! :D

[Kurovski]

112. All that, AND

We also hijack threads.

Right up top! None of that "downthread" nonsense for us. :hi:

[varkam]

116. Nope -- loud and proud, baby.

It's how we do! :toast:

[Maru Kitteh]

6. You don't just stuff human beings into dirty drawers for fun. No harm meant my ass.

I'd sue the shit out of him and the airline.

[joeybee12]

8. You apparently, like this drama Queen mother

sense a big payday coming!

[Maru Kitteh]

19. You, apparently, like this stupid and now unemployed flight attendant

don't seem to understand that it is not OK to grab human beings and stuff them willy-nilly into dirty and potentially dangerous situations for your own amusement just because you are bigger and have more power.

You bet your ass I'd sue. Long and hard.

[notadmblnd]

28. Not only that, if the parent had done it

the airline would have reported it as abuse and the parents would have been met by security at the end of their flight.

[timtom]

90. You don't touch other people's children!

Unless you're invited to.

[blondeatlast]

106. We have a winner (and sometimes you don't touch them even if invited,

but that's another can of worms...)

[seabeyond]

95. this little being is clueless. doesnt understand stuffed in dark restricted area.

if you can see no damage that can be done to such a little human without capacity to understand the play and fun of it.... then you merely appear ignorant. it really is not tough to grasp.

[cali]

38. what nonsense. It was a stupid thing to do, but the baby wasn't harmed

and the stupid flight attendant was fired. The mother is a fucking drama queen. And yes, I'm a a mother and if this had happened to my kid, no I wouldn't be fucking devastated.

[seabeyond]

97. i would be spitting mad. not devasted. and it is a horribly mean, stupid thing to do

to stick a baby who cannot comprehend into a closed dark space away from security of parent.

not a little stupid thing to do. more than that

[Zebedeo]

9. no harm meant?

OK, let's have the flight attendant be forcibly picked up by a creature 10 times his size - say, a grizzly bear, and placed into a small, tightly confined, pitch-black compartment. Then see if he finds it funny.

[Name removed]

13. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[woo me with science]

50. Oh for pete's sake. nt

[woo me with science]

52. I would bet lots and lots of money

that the child was not "stuffed" into a dark bin and shut in there. I think the flight attendant was playing a game and put him up there, probably not even in all the way, as a joke.

And I bet this mother is a money-grubbing, cynical, litigious drama queen looking for her easy cash.

That is my guess about what happened, and if the mother collects here it will be a damned shame.

This world has people scared to act like human beings anymore and interact with each other in any way other than the 12 points designated on the "customer service" form received from corporate.

Sheesh, people.

[Zebedeo]

113. Yeah, I guess you're right

It's too boring, predictable and "corporate" for flight attendants to just do their job of ensuring the safety and comfort of passengers. How much more "interesting" it is when they behave in unpredictable ways like grabbing your child and stuffing him into an area of the plane that has no ventilation and is not designed to hold a passenger. Who knows what might happen to the little tyke? How fun!!

[gauguin57]

71. "Oh for pete's sake" gets my nomination for post of the day.

I just want to say "Oh, for pete's sake," all the time, about so many things, these days!!!

It's just a big ole "oh, for pete's sake" world we're livin' in!

[snooper2]

86. Oh JHFC

I think you can get a few more dramatic adjectives in there :eyes:

[Lance_Boyle]

2. Mrs. Williamson likely smells a payday.

Traumatized, indeed. :eyes:

[varkam]

24. Ow, my neck!

/tongue-in-cheek

[CreekDog]

4. The flight attendant was quickly hired by Southwest

:D

[liberal N proud]

5. Case of overreaction?

Maybe the mother overreacted a little. Nothing said about the baby suffering any harm.

I don't know but I think she did.

[HereSince1628]

7. Apparently humiliation by authority is something to be laughed at

Geez guys.

[joeybee12]

11. Yup, that poor husband...humiliated by his payday-seeking wife! nt

[Dorian Gray]

70. You mean

his payday-seeking EX-wife.

I suspect she's a drama queen, and any trauma the kid has suffered is due to her histrionics.

I, however, would have been pissed off that a steward did this to my child. I would have complained, though I would be satisfied with his termination.

[woo me with science]

104. "Authority"?

Whom do you perceive as "authority" here?

[Zax2me]

10. This stinks...

Smells like someone is trying to get some money out of the airline.

[devils chaplain]

12. Sounds like a dumb "joke" to me too...

Some people seem to not realize how horrible a "prank" is until after the fact. It's happened to me a few times (nothing severe like this). Unless there's other reasons to doubt the sanity of the flight attendant, I think a suspension would be more in order than a firing.

[Ilsa]

15. Maybe the employee had already been suspended before for bad judgment.

We can't know all of the reasons they may have had to fire the FA.

On edit: I don't appreciate people messing with my kids either.

[Arkansas Granny]

14. If the father was standing so close (one metre), couldn't he have stopped the steward

before he could put the baby in the compartment and close it? I smell a rat.

More on this story here: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/overheard-locker-tot-outrage/story-e6frf7kx-1226016403074

[Ilsa]

17. Sounds to me like the baby is going through a developmental stage

of separation anxiety. I doubt the incident created it. What the mother describes sounds typical.

I wonder if the mother has some postpartum issues causing her to overreact where her child is concerned.

[Occulus]

16. WTF is it with DU today

on one thread we have people berating a mate on a barge for being distracted by a life-threatening emergency involving his son

on THIS thread we have people berating a parent whose infant was grabbed by someone not a relative and stuffed into an overhead bin without their consent

something is WRONG with DU today

[joeybee12]

18. Um, this entier article is essentially from the mother's point of view...the problem

at DU is when some people read half a story and think that's all there is to it.

[Occulus]

25. The mother IS a person

the airline is not

I will side with persons over nonpersons 100% of the time, thanks

[KittyWampus]

67. The mother is a person who sounds like she's not screwed together properly.

She claims to have cried for days over this.

[ZombieHorde]

80. She could have baby blues. This would explain her behavior. nt

[cali]

41. I think being devastated over this is absurd. sorry.

[ZombieHorde]

81. She might be suffering from baby blues. nt

[RamboLiberal]

43. The mate on the barge killed 2 people by his negligence

If he had an emergency requiring 21 phone calls while he's piloting a barge on a congested waterway why the hell didn't he get the captain to relieve him? Company policy in which he attended a seminar said NO PERSONAL CELLPHONES while navigating his tug!

What about sympathy for the families of the 2 people he killed? He easily could've killed more!

The FA screwed up but on this one I think the mother is a drama queen.

[ReggieVeggie]

54. today?

this happens all the time

[leeroysphitz]

73. The Chemtrails!™ have finally begun to take effect.

[krabigirl]

76. Ita.

[Initech]

20. Probably more legroom there...

[jdp349]

45. +1

[Kurovski]

110. !!

:rofl:

[Bluebear]

21. 'But Ms. Williams says that she's too traumatized to fly again.' - OFFS

[blueamy66]

33. Yeah, I was sued as a young lady cause my

brakes failed and I hit a car with 2 retirees. The lady claimed that she was TOO TRAUMATIZED to ride in a car again....even though she left the ER after 2 hours and was swimming and playing tennis the next day.

What's funny is that she settled with my insurance company for alot less after my bro took pics of her at the retirement village clubhouse 2 days later. If he couldn't get any snaps of her, he was gonna lay at the end of her driveway and let her run him over....even though she was TOO TRAUMATIZED to ride in a car again. Luckily he didn't have to do so.

People are too freaking sue happy these days.

And how does one know that a 17 month old is suffering from anxiety?

BS

[Angry Dragon]

51. ............

:popcorn:

[petronius]

75. I'm sure that trauma will evaporate as soon as the check clears and a tropical

vacation beckons...

[Violet_Crumble]

89. I'm traumatised too!!

There's the double trauma of knowing that drama queen will be all over Today Tonight appealing to their dumbed-down audience for sympathy, as well as the exreme trauma of realising that may have been the first ever Virgin Blue flight where there was any space available in an overhead compartment!

[Sonoman]

22. I would pay extra for that feature.

I wish some airline would offer Adults Only flights.

Sonoman

[DCKit]

26. Check the babies with the pets. What a novel concept. nt

[Ikonoklast]

27. Only if you volunteer to be the one getting stuffed in the overhead compartment.

But, they'll give you a great rate if you do.

[petronius]

77. That could be more comfortable than those stand-up seats

They'd probably charge extra for the overhead bin private sleeper compartment...

[JI7]

29. this article makes me hate the mother

[Kennah]

31. What the Virgin Blue fuck!?

[Hannah Bell]

32. seems unbelievable.

[trumad]

39. It sure looks like it happened.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/overheard-locker-tot-outrage/story-e6frf7kx-1226016403074

[Hannah Bell]

44. yeah, i saw the airline admitted it, but i can't imagine what would have prompted a

flight attendant to grab a baby from its mother's arms & put it in an overhead locker -- except sheer insanity.

[PCIntern]

49. Same thing that would prompt a school district to place cameras in private homes

without parental consent...

sheer, complete idiocy and wanton moronitude...

[Hannah Bell]

68. um, i don't think there's any comparison, as there was no secrecy involved in

the airline case.

but i can understand why you brought up your hobbyhorse.

[PCIntern]

88. Stupid minds are quite capable of all kinds of horrors...

"hobbyhorse"...someday you'll have it happen to you...and then we'll hear all about the outrage...until then...have a nice day!

[Dappleganger]

36. That still doesn't beat this incident...

http://www.metro.co.uk/showbiz/pictures/photos-02110/michael-jacksons-wacko-life/5

[Shagbark Hickory]

40. Wow! Someone actually does what the rest of the passengers are thinking in their minds!

Stuff the crying baby in the overhead compartment. :rofl:

[liberalhistorian]

59. Umm.....apparently you didn't read too closely?

The baby wasn't crying or fussy; he was playing a game with his parents. The flight attendant decided to "join in" on the fun, apparently.

And believe me, a crying child on a plane is even less fun for the parents, especially since you cannot MAKE them stop crying unless you smother them or something.

While it was a stupid thing for the FA to do and, as a mother, I wouldn't have been all that happy about it, the drama queen mother's overreaction is absurd. I guess the smell of money can be pretty intoxicating. Had I been the mother, a simple apology from and reprimand of the FA would have sufficed.

[treestar]

42. What a dumb thing to do

that could scare the kid.

Sometimes one needs to use one's head!

[pipi_k]

46. She was "devastated"? Crying and crying for days?

yeah. OK.

Granted, not a smart thing to do, but this "woman" needs to get her priorities straight if she thinks this is the worst thing that could happen to her kid.

It scared him? Yeah? Really?

I wonder how scared he gets going to see the doctor. I wonder if her husband or any other male relative has ever tossed the kid up in the air in play and scared the holy living shit out of him. I wonder how many other things scare the kid and have him screaming in terror. Maybe those parents should just lock the kid up in a little cage someplace where he'll never be scared by anything.

So, meanwhile, in other places in the world, little kids are being beaten and brutalized...tortured to a point that would truly sicken us if we knew what was going on.

But this mom is traumatized because her kid got put into an overhead bin for a bit.

Oh, and is the kid having issues? I thought I read that. Most likely because of the parents he's got.

[woo me with science]

53. It's bullshit. And it was likely a harmless joke.

Stuff like this is why nobody in a customer service role is allowed to interact with you like a human being anymore.

[Fire1]

55. Maybe but certainly not politically correct. n/t

[woo me with science]

56. I'm sick of interacting with automatons.

I prefer workers who aren't under orders to respond to me with one of the 14 corporate-approved responses.

[Fire1]

57. But the politically correct responses are effective in keeping

one's job.

[blueamy66]

60. Agreed.

Some people have issues.....

[liberalhistorian]

64. Some very good points.

And I doubt the kid's issues, if he even has any, are the result of this incident. He's at the age where separation anxiety can really start in earnest and is very, very common, so that's the likely cause.

[NeedleCast]

100. Makes you wonder what this "mom" will do when something actually traumatic happens to her baby...

[jberryhill]

47. If it doesn't fit under the seat in front of you, then it has to go in the bin

Rules are rules...

[NeedleCast]

101. This will easily be the best post of the day on DU, and it's only 10:57 AM

[flvegan]

48. How big is a 17 month old boy?

I ask seriously. Seems like quite the task to put what might have been a flailing child into one of those little bins.

Either way, dumb move on the flight attendant.

[NotThisTime]

58. They're bigger than an infant but smaller than a roll on bag... once my daughter was taken out of my

arms against my will, I held her for dear life, this was done by a stranger on a street, a famous street. I have never been back to the place it happened.... I can well imagine the mother's behavior. If you've never had your child taken out of your custody or having had it attempted, I guess people might not understand the depth to which that hurts a mother.

[blueamy66]

63. Where would the flight attendant have taken the kid?

To the emergency exit and then jumped??????

[liberalhistorian]

66. Snort

Zing!

[NotThisTime]

91. He had no right to put his hands on the child, NONE. If I saw someone do that to my child I'd bash

them. The guy who tried to take my daughter was running and dragging me behind him. Had he been in an enclosed space he would have feared for his life for putting his hands on her. It's interesting how many people think they can put their hands on other children all in the name of a funny joke. Unless they are yours, unless it is your niece or nephew and you have permission to touch them, KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF THEM, I don't care if you don't like what they are doing. In this case the kid was well behaved. There is no excuse for men who think they can just go around grabbing other people's kids.

This brings to mind a school bus driver who sat on my daughter when she was 5, he thought it was funny, he sent her into an asthma attack and then left the school with her, when he reached the next school where my son went to school my son realized she couldn't breath and notified his school nurse who then notified me. The bus driver never fessed up and her medication was at her school. That bus driver lost his damn job and I filed assault charges. Yeh, you can call me one of those parents, but don't lay your damn hands on my kids unless you have a damn good reason.

[flvegan]

65. I'm not saying anything about the mother

or how this has hurt her. I just didn't know the logistics (never had kids myself).

[Blue-Jay]

83. Maximum: 22"x16"x10" and 40 lbs.

[flvegan]

85. This sort of response is why we can't have nice things.

[snooper2]

87. around 24-29 lbs

30-32 inches tall give or take

[jberryhill]

103. 17 months

Next question?

[JVS]

61. "gave a flight attendant the boot " Am I the only one who had a Simpsons flashback reading that?

[northernlights]

62. I can understand the initial shock and anger

It is a form of abuse.

However, the mother should have gotten over it long ago. Her behavior is more likely responsible for the kid's problems now, as well as the estrangement from her husband. She needs to grow up and get over it. I met a neurotic nutcase of a mother like her a couple decades ago. Had turned her little princess into a sociopathic nightmare lawsuit looking for a place to happen. :scared:

[Dash87]

69. Common sense is as rare as diamonds these days.

:eyes:

[leeroysphitz]

72. If a flight attendant were to put my six year old boy into a bin like that he would have a new

best friend for the duration of the trip. My son would NEVER stop bugging him to do it again.

[Rebubula]

94. Indeed...

...we as parents sometime forget that what we see as outrageous - they see as fun.

As a kid, I LOVED hiding in closets, hampers and dark corners of the basement.

[fishwax]

74. what a stupid thing to do

[krabigirl]

78. I can't believe some of these responses. No empathy at all for a human being.

Just sick. Maybe the mom cried too much for your liking, but WTF.

[pipi_k]

79. Well I don't know about anyone else, but

I have plenty of empathy and compassion for someone who has really been through hell.

Like a little kid who's been burnt by lit cigarettes wielded by a mom's boyfriend. Or a toddler with arms or legs blown off by a land mine or bomb.


A toddler put into an overhead bin for what was probably less than 30 seconds?

He'll live and probably never remember what happened.


His Drama Queen mom?

fuck her.

sorry... :shrug:

[JI7]

82. empathy for what ? the mother is disgusting

[Rebubula]

96. I cannot....

...believe all of the knee-jerk, holier than thou posts on this thread.

Geez....everyone agrees there was a game of hide and seek afoot. What better place to hide than the overhead compartment.

It is not like he grabbed the kid by the neck, pushed the mom to the ground and threw him in the cargo hold. He simply was trying to play with the kid and mom is looking for a payday. People that make statements like 'I am too traumatized to fly' or ' I cried for days' are likely suffering from some sort of depression. While being sympathetic to this type of issue - it should not be considered when dealing in legal matters.

The flight attendant perhaps should not have done this, but to make this some sort of human rights issue is being obtuse.

[Union Scribe]

98. My empathy's with the person who got hurt: the woman who lost her job.

[GoneOffShore]

84. Teapot meet tempest.

[Pisces]

93. Stuffed or Placed??? The words create a different picture. I don't agree with the

treatment of the child, but I am sure she did not handle the child like a duffle bag.

[Iggo]

102. I woulda went with 'Punched'.

That'd gin up about the right amount of outrage.

[NeedleCast]

99. Sounds about the Norm for Today's Society

Because it's not enough that the flight attendant lost their job over it.

Yeah, if this were me and someone handled my kid like that without permission I'd probably be upset by it.

Devestated? No. It takes a whole lot more than that to devestate me.

Traumatized? No. It takes a whole lot more than that to traumatize me.

So I'd probably tell the flight attendant that I didn't appreciate it and to not do it again. And I'd bet a lot of money that it wouldn't happen again and that would be the end of it and everyone would just go on with their lives, untraumatized and undevestated and not needing to be fired and without a law suit needing to be filed.

But hey, I know calm and rational isn't the way most people prefer to do their thing these days.

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

105. What's the big deal?

When my kids were little I used to put them in the overhead bin so I could enjoy some airline food and a drink without the little tykes trying to steal my peanuts. I guess its different if you do it to your own kid as opposed to having someone else do it.

[PBS Poll-435]

107. KIDS FLY FREE!

[blondeatlast]

108. Don't know mom or the flight attendant and apparently I'm the only DUer who

doesn't claim to.

Still, you don't touch a child unless mom and/or dad and/or guardian okays it first--and a flight attendant should be well aware of that. Doesn't matter if mom is a drama queen or not.

[NeedleCast]

109. Sure it matters

Because response dictates how this is going to proceed. I'm in agreement with you that the flight attendant shouldn't hae touched the child without permission (however, the article seems intentionally vauge on what was happening leading up to the incident) but there's responding to a situation, and then there's freaking the fuck out, which is, apparently, what the parents in this situation chose to do.

Like I said upthread, if someone I didn't know did this I'd tell them it wasn't acceptable and not to do it again. And, having done that sort of thing in the past, that's usually been the end of it. But this whole OMG I'M TRAUMATIZED 4 LYFE shit is just that, shit.

[pipi_k]

114. I agree...the flight attendant did a dumb thing

It should never have happened.


But after it's all said and done and over with, the mother is still being an ass.

[demwing]

115. Two quotes from the article:

First:

"He was engaged in a playful game of peek-a-boo with his father when the attendant decided to join in, scooped up the baby, and put him in the overhead locker. At least that's the story Riley's mother, Natalie Williamson, gave Melbourne's Sunday Herald Sun"

So it's not the official story, just the mother's POV, and she's "traumatized."


Second:

"My husband, Shayne, was standing one metre behind my son, Riley, when the air steward picked him up and placed him in the overhead compartment," Ms. Williamson told the Herald Sun.

"I stood up and there were people laughing and then I said 'Get my son out of there now'

So, apparently, objective witnesses saw this as a bit of funnery, not traumatic.

We've only heard one side here, and we don't know the real story.