We’ve all been there.
Your over-tired and out-of-routine child is unsettled and crying. It’s a packed flight and you’re acutely aware that everyone can hear you toddler’s distress.
They don’t want to wear their seatbelt. Your negotiations are failing. Not a Freddo Frog or Chuppa Chup can placate this child who is fed up with being away from their famililar surroundings.
The airline hostess approaches you and explains that your child needs to be wearing their seatbelt. Once the pilot reaches cruising altitude they can unbuckle.
You understand the regulations but the pressure of stares from other passengers and the limited personal space is extremely stressful.
Meanwhile your toddler is still crying.
This was the situation Canadian singer, Sarah Blackwood found herself in this week on a United Airlines flight from San Fransisco to Vancouver.
Blackwood, who is seven months pregnant, admitted that her 23-month-old son, Georgia Miachel was “crying really loud” as their plane taxied down the runway.
She said she was trying to calm him down on her lap when two flight attendants approached her.
“They said, ‘If you can’t control your child, we’re going to have to turn the plane around and ask you to leave,'” Blackwood told TODAY.com.
“I was welling up with tears because it’s already really frustrating having to deal with that. You’re already embarrassed because you know everyone around you is thinking that this kid is never going to stop and he’s super loud.”
Just as she expected, little Georgio soon fell asleep.
Despite her son now being fast asleep, the plane returned to the airport terminal and an official from United Airlines escorted the mother and her still-sleeping son from the flight.
“There were a couple of people who actually stood up when it was happening and said, ‘This is ridiculous. You can’t kick her off the plane because her son was crying,'” she said.
SkyWest Airlines, which operated the United Airlines flight, have denied that the mother and son were removed from the flight because the boy was crying. They said Blackwood was asked to leave the plane because she did not secure her child.
“Out of concern for her son’s safety during taxi and before take-off, the flight crew complied with federal regulations requiring all passengers to be securely seated for take-off by removing Ms. Blackwood and her son from the flight,” the airline said in a statement.
“Safety is paramount, particularly when it comes to our tiniest travelers.”
An airline spokesman, Marissa Snow, added that the toddler was not in his seat while the plane was taxiing down the runway, “The child was repeatedly in the aisle prior to take off,” she said.
Blackwood flat-out denies this claim, insisting that her son remained on her lap where she sat next to the window.
“I was sitting beside a gentlemen who I don’t even know, so in order for my son to be in the aisle, he would have had to climb over that man, which he wouldn’t do,” she told Today.com.
“He’s a shy little boy. He’s not the type to climb over someone he doesn’t know.”
After Blackwood tweeted the incident to her fans the story went viral.
People expressed their outrage with United Airlines with many angry tweets and Facebook posts.
One disgruntled customer, Annie-Jussaino Humiston, expressed her disgust with the airline’s decision and vowed not to fly with the airline again:
“As a long time United customer, I have dealt with many crying children, seat kicking children and really rude flight attendants. For you to kick a woman with a crying squirming child off a plane because the flight attendants felt ‘unsafe’ is truly sad,” Annie-Jussaino Humiston wrote on United Airline’s Facebook page.
“Remove the flight attendant who can not do their job of customer service… I will not fly United again,” she wrote.
Blackwood has said she appreciates picking sticking up for her and continues to reiterate that she was definitely removed from the flight due to her son being was being too loud.
She explained to Today.com that she wishes there was more compassion from airlines for parents dealing with these situations, “It really was not a big deal at all. It was seven minutes of loud crying and then my baby was sleeping,” she said.
“Nobody on the flight was upset. None of the other passengers were giving me the stink eye or anything like that. It was just one of those days. I got on a flight with a couple of flight attendants having a really bad day.”
After being re-booked on a new flight the 34-year-old mother and her son finally fly into their destination at around midnight without incident.
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