A young mother has lodged a formal complaint with airline Jetstar after claiming that another passenger struck her 12-month-old daughter with her seat because she was crying.
The Melbourne mother, Sunny (last name withheld), told The Sydney Morning Herald that the woman sitting in front of her used her reclining chair to hit her daughter, Lily, on the head because she was ‘annoying her’ whilst on a flight from Melbourne to Sydney.
The complaint states that after complaining about Lily ‘tapping’ on the food tray in front of her, the couple asked Sunny to make her stop and then intentionally reclined her seat into Lily when she didn’t.
“I tried to hold her and I gave her milk – I tried to get her to go to sleep but she wouldn’t go to sleep, so I was just trying to keep her entertained,” Sunny said about Lily’s ‘tapping’.
“After about half an hour [the other passenger] just kind of lost it and basically pushed her seat back as hard as she could and her seat went right back and it just slammed into my daughter’s head,” said Sunny, “And my daughter screamed and she started crying and then I just kind of lost it and I just stood up and I was like: ‘you know you just hit my daughter in the head’. And her boyfriend was like: ‘well, we told you to stop that tapping.”‘
Sunny and her daughter, Lily.
“I pushed her chair she turned around and said: “I’ve got spinal injuries’,” said Sunny, “And her partner [said]: ‘you just did that on purpose’ and I was like: ‘well, you hit my baby on purpose”‘.
“It was really vindictive,” said Sunny, “My impression was she just wanted [Lily] to shut up.”
After alerting the cabin crew, Lily was moved to another seat on the plane for the duration of the flight but has since sought action with Jetstar.
The airline has responded stating that if Sunny wished to take any action against the passenger, she would have to involve the police.
“We would assist with any police investigation,” said a Jetstar spokesperson, “Generally speaking, our customers are courteous and respectful towards one another and incidents like this are extremely rare.”
