Put Baby In The Overhead Bin - Great Idea!

[dales]

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.

"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'

"I was devastated. I was absolutely devastated.

"I was crying. My husband was in shock. For days on end I was crying."

SFGate reached out to Ms. Williamson for comment; she has yet to respond.




Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfm ... z1FxmtuRx3

[Scooter]

Oh please. The kid wasn't locked in a microwave. It was a stupid thing to do, but "too traumatized to fly again"?

Drama queen setting up for a lawsuit.

[Big RR]

If a flight attendant did that to my child, I doubt that people would be laughing when they saw what I did to him.

[@meric@nwom@n]

Gads people have no sense of humor.

[rubato]

"...
"I was devastated. I was absolutely devastated.

"I was crying. My husband was in shock. For days on end I was crying."

... "

"absolutely devastated"

Wow, that's the worst kind of devastation.

yrs,
rubato

[Gob]

SFGate reached out to Ms. Williamson for comment; she has yet to respond.

"reached out"? Oh please.."contacted" will do...

[SisterMaryFellatio]

Funny cos its someone elses child, had it have been my child they would have to restrained me!

[Big RR]

I actually don't see how it was funny at all, but then I fly enough to become sick and tired of idiotic flight attendants like this sort of guy, the kind of people who let a little authority go to their heads and do what they damn well please. I recall seeing one (another male flight attendant, seems to be a pattern here) yank the newspaper out of the guy's hands a few seats in front of me and demand "pay attention" during the safety briefing. I think these guys would have become security guards or some other job where they believe they have some authority over others so they can compensate for their shortcomings in life (or, if they could keep up with the curriculum, become nurses so they could kill and resuscitate helpless patients and be big heroes).

[Miles]

I can't believe there are those here who don't see this as a problem. Laying hands on someone elses child, unless it is for emergency purposes, is far from a joke. Personally I would not be seeking money but just the services of a good defense attorney as the bastard would be either dead or so severly fucked up as to wish he was.

[Scooter]

None of your children enjoyed hiding in cupboards and closets when they were that age? Why are you interpreting it as the flight attendant "letting authority go to his head" rather than joining in the game that the kid was playing?

[Crackpot]

what part of "contents may shift during flight" are you missing Scooter?

[Big RR]

I agree Crackpot. Scooter, contents shifting aside, a stranger picked a child up and put him somewhere without his parent's consent; I can't think anywhere else this might happen where the offender wouldn't wind up in jail. I've played peek a boo with kids in grocery lines, but I would never dream of picking them up and sticking them in a grocery bag or box or on a shelf.

[Miles]

Many years ago when my oldest daughter was about 4 years old we were in an Ames store when she picked up a glass figure of a dog. She said 'look daddy a cute doggy'. There was a sales person who came running over and grabbed the object and slapped my little girls hand and told her to keep her hands to her self. Twenty minutes later as they loaded him in the the ambulance I was escorted from the store by the local police and advised to not return. I felt that was fair exchange.

[Scooter]

what part of "contents may shift during flight" are you missing Scooter?

I do seem to recall saying it was a stupid thing to do. But for the mother to claim to have been "absolutely devastated" and too traumatized to ever fly again makes her a drama queen extraordinaire.

Scooter, contents shifting aside, a stranger picked a child up and put him somewhere without his parent's consent; I can't think anywhere else this might happen where the offender wouldn't wind up in jail. I've played peek a boo with kids in grocery lines, but I would never dream of picking them up and sticking them in a grocery bag or box or on a shelf.

Neither would I, but if the child's parent claim to have been so traumatized by witnessing you do it that he/she would never be able to enter a grocery store again, I would not hesitate in labelling him/her a drama queen either.

[Big RR]

I'm not saying the mother/parents are overreacting, maybe even in hopes of money; all I'm saying is that an airline should not be employing an idiot like this flight attendant (but sadly, the airlines really don't seem to care about service or customer reaction at all, maybe a big judgment against one will force them to take a look at what they're inflicting on their passengers).

[Scooter]

You did catch the bit where the flight attendant was fired?

[Big RR]

Sure, but he shouldn't have been in such a position in the first place; firing him after an incident hardly makes up for hiring him in the first place.

[Scooter]

I'll leave it to you to design the psychological test that would have identified him as the type of person with a tendency to put toddlers in overhead comparments.

[Lord Jim]

I fly enough to become sick and tired of idiotic flight attendants like this sort of guy, the kind of people who let a little authority go to their heads and do what they damn well please. I recall seeing one (another male flight attendant, seems to be a pattern here) yank the newspaper out of the guy's hands a few seats in front of me and demand "pay attention" during the safety briefing. I think these guys would have become security guards or some other job where they believe they have some authority over others so they can compensate for their shortcomings in life

Okay, well that's what you get for flying coach...

[Big RR]

jim--touche.

Scooter--I imagine there are many ways to screen out problems like this guy, but I leave it to the professionals to design a "test". It's done for other jobs, so why not for flight attendants?