On a late night flight, around 11 p.m., a flight attendant reports that the cabin was dark and most passengers were sleeping. The crewmember walked down the aisle and stepped on something at row 19, tried to step over it, and kicked it. Immediately he heard a baby crying, looked down, and realized he’d kicked a baby lying in the aisle. He calls out: “there’s a baby in the aisle. Whose baby is this??”
The mother picked up the baby, said the baby “needed to sleep” and there “wasn’t any room in the seats.”
The flight attendant later said the mother came to him and said she wasn’t mad – that it was on her – and he adds that later on after he finished the trip “cocktails were consumed at the hotel.” Based on this flight attendant working routes like Miami – Las Vegas it seems like this happened on American Airlines.
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A “baby in the aisle” is clearly an egress problem. Of course there are going to be passengers and crew moving down the aisle! And crew are usually going to stop you from putting a human body in the aisle, if they notice.
Regulatory langugage on this is written for carry-on bags. It has to be possible to move during an evacuation without obstructions. The FAA says an airline’s carry-on program should ensure items don’t obstruct movement through the aisle. If the aisle can’t be obstructed by a roller bag, it’s not okay to obstruct it with a sleeping infant.
Of course we’ve seen kids sleeping on the floor before, I just don’t think it’s a great idea. In fact there are several reasons this is a bad idea.
- Turbulence risk: The baby becomes a projectile.
Aftermath of major turbulence on AC19 today
byu/HefetzHashud inaircanada - Hygiene: that plane floor is disgusting. Baby immune systems aren’t fully mature.
- Passengers and galley carts going through the aisle: Drink cart slams the child.
These comments, though, win.
Airplane seating isn’t really made for babies. Some will sleep comfortably strapped to a parent but others prefer to sleep flat and there isn’t a way to sleep flat if the parent has not bought an extra seat for the baby. However, placing the baby on the floor in the aisle, is not acceptable. It sounds like child endangerment to me, especially when the cabin is dark.
I do wonder about the comparison between a baby and a bag, though.
Someone needs to call the local child protective services agency on this woman. People like this should be legally barred from reproducing.
I once saw a man with a German Shepherd in the row immediately behind the first-class curtain. The dog was laying half in the aisle, and a FA moving aft through the curtain tripped over the dog, nearly falling.
And this is surprising? It’s not that she didn’t know…she didn’t care. Since the airline didn’t give her room she didn’t pay for she’s ENTITLED to use the aisle as a sleeping lounge for her kid.
Catch up people. Folks like her don’t owe you anything, but they expect everything.