Temper tantrum gets family thrown off plane

I have never been on a plane before but if they did get kicked off, I would think they would at least give them their belongings also. That would be so embarassing. I would be upset. I dont think it should have happened.

The article on read on this said the take off was delayed for 15 minutes due to the child's behavior, would not sit in the seat, was screaming and hitting the parents. I guess I can see the parent's side of the story, but it does sound like the child was out of control. On the other hand, there were 100+ passengers waiting to get to their destination, many probably with connecting flights, who I am sure were getting headaches from listening to a screaming child in close quarters. They could have removed their luggage, but that would have made the takeoff even later. There is no way that everyone would be happy in this situation. I think the airlines staff did the best they could under the circumstances. I have flown AirTran in the past and felt very closed in on them, and I must admit to listen to a screaming child for 15 minutes, while take off was delayed would have aggravated me.

I would have gotten very ticked off ,getting thrown off the plane just becouse a kid was throwing a fit ,that is just ridiculous.

I thought that was funny, I actually used to work at that airport. I read the local news article on it, which was slightly different then the AP article. The plane was delayed because the child refused to sit in the seat. It's an FAA federal regulation that all passengers must be seated/belted in. In the local news, the mother said, well they should've just let me have a few minutes with my child to get her to cooperate. I don't know how much longer she needed to get her child to sit. I guess everybody else should be inconvenienced and delayed because she couldn't control her child. LOL Unfortunately that's the mentality of a lot of people that visit Florida, and I'm so glad I've moved away from it. I think the airline was right in refusing to let them fly. They did offer the family another flight, but it had a connection, which most likely would've been through Atlanta then on to Boston, really not much of an inconvenience. The family refused saying they wanted a direct flight. They got a refund for their tickets, and AirTran offered them free round trip tickets, they refused that as well. I think AirTran went well above and beyond what they needed to do to accomodate that family. I don't think they should've even offered the free RT tickets to them. I say good for AirTran that the family won't fly them again. That family needs to learn how to control their child. I have 3 children, 2 over that age, and there's no way I would've allowed them to act like that. And I'd hate to have been on that flight with a child acting like that on it. And as far as their belongings, the luggage is put underneath in the belly of the plane. It would've been a very long delay to sift through all the belongings/luggage under there just to find a particular bag. If they would've accepted a later flight like they were offered, their luggage would've been waiting in an office at Logan International in Boston when they got there. So I have absolutely no sympathy for those people at all, and I'm sure the others on the plane didn't either...

I don't think the fully story is relayed here. I see from other reports that the child would not take a seat and was throwing a temper tantrum. There were 112 passengers on board that flight, some of whom would have been very nervous about flying. Regardless of whether any passengers were nervous, the fact that the child wouldn't sit down and allow herself to be belted up posed a potential threat to the safety of crew and passengers. If she behaved this way before going anywhere, what would she have been like in the air? I'm not saying for one moment that it's the child's fault. It's an unfortunate situation and I think the airline acted responsibly.