By now, I’m sure most everyone has heard about last week’s fiasco when a mother traveling with her young son were removed from a flight because the little boy was saying “Bye bye plane” while waiting to take off. I was so angry at the airline when I first read this, and kudos to the mother for bringing it to the media (had it been me, I would have been absolutely infuriated and would have done same).

I’ve flown with my children many times, from the time they were 3 months old (the oldest is now 3-1/2 years). It always makes me anxious, because I never know exactly how the girls are going to behave – and most of the time it’s just fine, after some unsettling moments while settling in.  In this case however, the little boy wasn’t acting up at all, simply saying bye a few times. What child doesn’t do that? And after the 11 hour delay they had, I probably would have been saying “Bye bye plane” as well in hopes that we’d soon be en route. Clearly this stewardess does not have children of her own.

After giving it some thought, though, I considered that the stewardess was likely having an off day (they were about half a day behind schedule at this point). Does it excuse what she did? Absolutely not; but it did make me want to hear her side of the story, or at least have some sort of corroboration, perhaps from a fellow passenger, that the stewardess had in fact been threatened or felt compromised. One week later, and not a word to that effect. Granted, the stewardess has probably been instructed by her employers and legal counsel to not say anything. But I’ve yet to hear of one passenger who has come to her defense (as opposed to the several who’ve defended the mother and child before they were forced off the flight).

The kicker of the whole idiotic mess? By the time the stewardess had her fit and informed the crew to turn the plane around, the little boy was asleep in his mom’s arms. If she’d had the patience to wait five minutes longer, she could have avoided an awful lot of embarrassment and controversy for both her and her employer. I’d still like to hear what ExpressJet’s take is on all this, although I wonder if this is one of those issues that will get swept under the rug to escape an admission of fault on their part.