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Delusional... but in a funny way
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Another account of the story, this time with comments from passengers (from http://www.wusa9.com/news/news_artic...?storyid=60738)
Quote:
GWINNETT CO., Ga. (WXIA) -- A Gwinnett County woman wants an apology from Continental's Express Jet Airlines for kicking her and her toddler off of the plane -- all because, she said, a flight attendant wanted the woman's son to stop talking.
"I was embarrassed, shocked, upset," the mom, Kate Penland, told 11Alive News at her home on Thursday. "I was just, words cannot express, you know, I was already tired, I couldn't believe what was happening."
Penland and her 20-month-old son, Garren, were on their way from Atlanta to Oklahoma City on June 16 to visit Penland's father for Father's Day. Weather delays forced them to sit in Houston's airport for 11 hours.
When the flight finally left the gate late that Saturday night, Penland said Garren was talking about it, happily, along with all the adults on board.
"He's saying, 'Bye, bye, airplane' to the plane out the window. And that's what he was doing, he wasn't screaming or throwing a fit, just, 'Bye, Bye, airplane.'"
Penland said a flight attendant told her to get Garren to stop talking.
Immediately.
"She leaned over the gentleman beside me and, ah, said, 'Okay, it's not funny anymore, you need to shut your baby up.' And, you know, my first reaction was she had to be kidding. So, I asked her, you know, 'Are you kidding?' And she said, no, she was tired, she'd been stranded at the airport all day, and she did not want to hear it."
Penland said she replied that Garren would probably be asleep by the time the plane lifted off.
"I said, 'Well, he's been here at the airport for eleven hours, stuck in a stroller, you know, you should be lucky he's not screaming his head off.' And she said, 'Well, it's called Baby Benedryl.' [She made] just a little, you know, drinking motion, and I thought she's got to be kidding me. And I told her, 'I'm not going to drug my baby so that you'll have a pleasant flight.'"
Penland said the plane was small and other passengers could see and hear her and the flight attendant clearly. Penland said the passengers began speaking up for her, telling the flight attendant they were not disturbed by Garren's talking and that the flight to Oklahoma City from Houston was only one hour, anyway.
"It was ludicrous," one of the passengers, Stacey Watts, told 11Alive News on Thursday, from her home near Oklahoma City. "I even heard somebody from the back of the plane call out there, 'You telling me there's a switch on kids all these years?'"
Watts was in Row 6, just behind Penland and her son who were in Row 3.
Penland said the flight attendant then addressed all the passengers.
"She put her hand on her hip and informed everyone that it was her plane and she was not going to listen to it. And she then went to the flight attendant station, was there for a few minutes, came back and informed the cabin that we were turning around. And she looked at me and said, 'You and your baby are getting off the plane.' And we did, we turned around and security came and escorted my child and me off the plane."
Penland was not charged with any crime.
Penland had only her carry-on, with the few diapers and other baby items she had taken for the short flight. Her luggage went on to Oklahoma City. She said Express Jet paid for a room for her and Garren for the night, and she and Garren flew to Oklahoma City the next morning.
She said she was talking with a representative of Express Jet just after being escorted off of the plane. "I was in tears," Penland said. She said the airline representative told her, "The reason I was removed from the plane was because the flight attendant told the captain I had threatened her. And that was the reason I was removed, not because of the baby ... I told her that I did not threaten that woman, and I had a plane full of witnesses."
"I heard nothing from Katie to indicate there was any type of a threat," Watts said. "I never heard any of that."
A spokeswoman for Express Jet Airlines told 11Alive News that due to potential litigation over the incident, the company would have no comment other than this statement: "We received Ms. Penland's letter expressing her concerns and intend to investigate its contents."
Penland said she and her husband are thinking about filing a lawsuit. Mostly, she said, they just want an apology.
"You know, with all the heightened security alerts at the airports, you would think turning a plane around would be for something important, not, you know, a flight attendant that was irritated."
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The flight attendant was a piece of shit. As the mother of a 19-month-old son I have to say that, had I been in this situation, they would've definitely had to turn the plane around because I would've beaten the flight attendant into a bloody pulp. The kid wasn't crying, wasn't hitting anybody, wasn't screaming, wasn't running up and down the aisle... he was talking. OMG, a toddler talking? HOW UNUSUAL AND HORRIFYING!! AHHHH!!!
Also, there had already been an 11-hour delay for that flight. Those of you with toddlers know that no matter how wonderful your parenting is, a tired and bored toddler is often inconsolable. The flight attendant was so obsessed with herself that she was willing to further delay the flight just so she didn't have to listen to a kid say "Bye bye airplane." Yeah, I would've killed her. |