Kids seem to be getting kicked off planes left and right these days.
What is it with commercial carriers and fussy tots, anyway?
The latest victim: A cranky 3-year-old and his parents.
According to news reports, last Sunday, a screaming toddler was booted off an Alaska Airlines flight departing from Seattle. The incident enraged the boy’s father, who claims the airline overreacted.
“Kids crying, people snoring, large, smelly people, we deal with it, it’s normal,” said Mark Yanchak.
Yanchak told reporters that his son was being a little fussy while the family prepared for their flight to depart.
“He was crying, being cranky,” said Yanchak. “I started putting him in his seat. I put his seatbelt on. But he was being cranky, trying to be close to me, so he wasn’t fully fastened yet.”
The boy’s father says that when his young son refused to keep his seatbelt on, he enlisted the help of his wife, who tried to placate the boy with a pacifier and water. However, by the time the child’s mom got him to sit down nicely, the pilot had already ordered the plane back to the gate.
Once the plane was parked, a representative for Alaska Airlines instructed Yanchak and his fidgety toddler to get off the plane. For their part, the airlines’ crew maintains that they were simply following protocol. The pilot says it was a judgment call and that he was concerned because the boy did not want to sit upright and keep his seatbelt on. The airline told news reporters that the safety issue was something that was better settled on the ground rather than mid-flight. The carrier also claims that it offered to rebook the entire Yanchak family on a later flight, but the boy’s dad says they have no desire to ever fly on Alaska Airlines again.
Do you think the airlines did the right thing in booting the family?
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