Seen and not heard
ORLANDO, Fla. - AirTran Airways on Tuesday defended its decision to remove a Massachusetts couple from a flight after their crying 3-year-old daughter refused to take her seat before 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,” AirTran spokeswoman Judy Graham-Weaver said.
[…]
The Orlando-based carrier reimbursed the family $595.80, the cost of the three tickets, and the Kuleszas flew home the next day.
They also were offered three roundtrip tickets anywhere the airline flies, Graham-Weaver said.
The father said his family would never fly AirTran again.
I, on the other hand, plan to fly with them whenever possible. This is a victory for air travelers everywhere.
I’m all in favor of children, certainly—America has anough child-free nitwits, although certainly not as many as Europe.* And children can certainly be loud—that’s why I wear earplugs. But if your kid is going to waste a collective 28 man-hours* of innocent bystanders’ time, then slip her a damn mickey before the flight. Or drive.
[*] On that note, don’t miss this Mark Steyn column.
[**] (In fairness, the article doesn’t say if the 15-minute delay was the kid’s fault or if the plane was already late before they boarded.)
AirTran, incidentally, is the successor to ValuJet, which suffered the infamous ValuJet Flight 592 crash in the Florida Everglades. I’m not complaining: they fly the BOS-CAK route, cheap.