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.

AirTran officials said they followed Federal Aviation Administration rules that children age 2 and above must have their own seat and be wearing a seat belt upon 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.

Julie and Gerry Kulesza, who were headed home to Boston on Jan. 14 from Fort Myers, said they just needed a little more time to calm their daughter, Elly.

"We weren't given an opportunity to hold her, console her or anything," Julie Kulesza said in a telephone interview Tuesday.

The Kuleszas said they told a flight attendant they had paid for their daughter's seat, but asked whether she could sit in her mother's lap. The request was denied.

She was removed because "she was climbing under the seat and hitting the parents and wouldn't get in her seat" during boarding, 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.

hard to give any kind of opinion (for me anyway) without knowing what REALLY went on. were the parents trying at all to calm their daughter down? or is that just something she's saying now that she's on the news? anyone who's had a three year old knows that sometimes it can get "rough". but still, parents should be able to control or calm their children enough to do what needs to be done. if they can't, then pick the damn child up and sit her in the seat yourself so the plane can take off. once in the air the child could sit in the mom's lap and be comforted and calmed.

Mach said:

hey, anybody got a toddler i can borrow?

IrresistibleB1tch said:

My name is Todd. Does that count? I can throw a fit if it benefits me.

TMPletz said:

you could quote Monty Python off the top of your lungs!

IrresistibleB1tch said:

"I came on this plane for an argument!"

TMPletz said:

"no, you didn't!"

IrresistibleB1tch said:

IrresistibleB1tch said:

I think we're ready!

TMPletz said:

i'm going to Germany in April, so get your passport ready, my rowdy little friend!

oh well. i gotta fly with my son this summer. aw shit. lol!


they could not have expected 112 people's plans to be fucked up cuz they couldn't calm their kid down. Sometimes parents are just like dog owners -obnoxious as hell and always expecting people to put up with their noisy dogs and noisy kids. I would have given them their money back and that would be it. They didn't owe them anything else.

Sounds reasonable to me.

can anyone of us even fathom being responsible for holding up a plane when we were three??

that look of daggers from my mother would have been more than enough.
so what are we doing to our children by allowing them to act out?

Steadwood said:

One good slap on the butt and that child would've taken her seat.

Modern day parenting: the kids are in charge!

The kid is in control of the parents. He needs at least 5 siblings to even it all out. Why did the press pick up on this anyway, is my question? If you want to advertise for an airline, you couldn't do a better job.

AnotherLoverToo said:

it's pathetic, and yet true. i wonder why it is that so many parents do not know how to discipline their children? is it the end reuslt of an extreme youth culture? or just the breakdown of the nuclear family?

Good! Such i'll mannered children are the worst to fly with

If you can't get your child to sit down in 15 minutes you deserve to be thrown out of the plane during the flight.

I really do despise people like that. "But oh no, saying "no" to a child is going to damage him psychically and we just want him to attend a good college in the future and have recreational hobbies!" (oh and and a big "hi" to my ex-neighbours in case you are reading this, thanks for fucking ruining my life)

novabrkr said:

I agree though.

And your neighbors ruined my life as well.

here's a free clue to parents. after you have eliminated the possibility that your child is fussing due to illness or injury, consider this: one half tab of Dramamine (anti-travel sickness drug, available over the counter) will put your child to sleep for several hours.

XxAxX said:

right?

half of a benadryl works well, too. I don't know why more people don't do this.

That kid sounds like she was being a real brat!

I've seen grown men have tandrums when flight attendants have told them to take their seats....

I can sympathize with this poor family.
I had a very similiar situation happen to me early in my life.

Except instead of my whole family, I was the only one who got ousted.

And it half-way thru the journey.
And it was on a ship, not a plane, so I got thrown over-board.

I ended up being was raised by a pack of killer whales.


And that's why I don't mind that most people here don't understand any of my threads.

Because I know that for all those lurking orcas out there,
they are laughing their asses off.

XxAxX said:

No, just wimpy-asses who shouldn't be parents in the first place. I see this sh!t all the time, especially during the holidays - parents not knowing how to keep their precious little monsters in line. And don't get me started on what happens at movie theaters.

Illustrator said: