Friday 13 April 2012

Sorry, Chris, But 'Tolerance' Only Goes So Far...

The Alaska Airlines flight was scheduled to travel between Long Beach, California, and Vancouver, Canada.
But it was forced to land in Portland, Oregon, when the children, aged three and eight, refused to stay in their seats.
'Refused'? And....what did their parents do? I can imagine what mine would have done!
The children and their parents were kicked off the flight and met by police officers.
After being spoken to by officials, the family was allowed to continue its journey on another plane.
I bet they wore their seatbelts!

But there's always one bleeding heart, isn't there?
Chris Heistand, a passenger on the flight forced to set down in Portland, said he thought the captain's decision to boot the family off may have been an overreaction.
He told KATU News: 'I think we all need to have some sort of tolerance.
'Everybody's trying to get from point A to point B. We're all in the same boat in a sense - the same plane,
I think the problem is too much tolerance in the past, not too little now.

And airlines are getting a wee bit fed up with parents who are unable to control their children, quite rightly.

So expect more of this, not less.

6 comments:

Oldrightie said...

My experience as a pilot in the past and as a passenger agrees wholeheartedly with you Julia. Kids are now treated with a reverence they no longer have to earn. Many of them are now in politics, corporations and banks. Look what a mess that is.

Lord T said...

I think it was massive overkill to expend all the fuel and time on changing course just to kick them off.

There should be an option to tie them up and throw them in the baggage hold. Much quicker too.

Conniesdad said...

Charge them for the costs involved. Once it became common knowledge that this would happen surely behaviour would improve?

Conniesdad said...

Charge them for the costs involved. Once it became common knowledge that this would happen surely behaviour would improve?

Fly me I'm easy said...

I would have imagined the prospect of scraping little Hyacinth off the bulkhead because the angel won't wear her seat-belt would concentrate the mind of moany mother and flappy father somewhat.

But maybe they were hoping that might happen...

JuliaM said...

@Oldrightie: we are fast going downhill as a nation. Is there still time to stop the rot?

@Lord T: maybe they should do as Conniesdad suggests, and make them pay the full costs?