By Rachel Hoeing
Last week, the Vieau/Stolk family appeared on the Today Show to discuss the fact that they been taken off an airplane in February. Their dismissal from the plane was due to the fact that their toddler was not buckled in her seat belt and the pilot asked them to leave the plane. Of course there is more to the story …
Evidently the mother had tried to buckle the child, but the child had been throwing a tantrum. The mother did finally get the child settled down and buckled, but it was too little too late, as the pilot had already decided to have the family escorted off the plane for the safety of all involved.
While on the Today show, the family stated that the entire scenario did not seem fair to them. According to the mom, this was the 15th time they had flown with their children, and they had not had any previous incidents like this one. They were leaving their vacation from Turks & Caicos and the mom said it had been a long day. The daughter who had thrown the tantrum, Natalie, had not had a nap and wanted her mom to hold her instead of being buckled into the seat. The mother said she wished the staff on the plane would have shown more compassion to their family who was trying to deal with an unruly toddler. The mom also said she did not understand how a two-year-old is a threat to the airplane.
In an article I found on NY Daily News, the airline said “the flight had customers that did not comply with crew member instructions for a prolonged time period. The captain elected to remove the customers involved for the safety of all customers and crew members on board.”
The Today show put up a poll on their website and out of more than 60,000 voters, 71 percent sided with the airline in its decision.
I would love for our readers to comment below with your thoughts on the situation. Do you side with the family, or with the airline? Have you ever encountered a similar experience while flying with children? Share your two cents below!
