She had flown out of heaven and was heading straight for hell.
A passenger on a Southwest Airlines flight from Hawaii to the US mainland found themselves in a nightmare when a child wouldn’t stop kicking the seat back — and the parents allegedly refused to take the problem seriously.
And while the internet is full of recent stories of people succumbing to their fear of heights after the fact, this jaded aviator quickly found himself in need of psychological support.
So she logged onto the plane’s Wi-Fi service and posted an urgent plea on Reddit’s Southwest Airlines message board, hoping to find sympathetic support and helpful advice. people This is the first time it has been reported.
“I’m currently on a flight from Hawaii to Las Vegas and the kid behind me keeps kicking my seat,” Reddit user Silverlace22 alerted the room.
“His father is sitting next to him, unaware, and doing nothing. I don’t want to cause a fuss, but after four hours I’m ready to go all out, Karen. I’ve said ‘Ouch’ several times, but to no avail.
“Why only put a half-inch of foam between your hips and legs?” she wondered aloud.
Passengers quickly offered emotional support to the angry traveller and told him to call the flight attendant immediately for help.
“Please press the flight attendant button and say what you just said here in the most adult terms possible,” urged one hypothetical good Samaritan.
“Many times I’ve turned around and directly told my kid, ‘Hey, you kicked my seat and it hurts, can you take your foot off of it? Thanks!’ It usually works,” said another.
Other users suggested some amusing ways to force kids to change their behavior.
“‘See that blue button above my seat? That’s the escape button for your seat. If you keep kicking me I will be forced to press it and you will be kicked off the plane,'” one armchair warrior suggested as a line that might work.
However, while some were quick to accuse the passenger of being “passive-aggressive”, the woman made it clear that this was not the case.
“I should have added that I’d already told my dad. He said it was ok but it continued after that so the only recourse is to get the flight attendants involved. I was just hoping someone had a creative alternative. Raising a wild child is no joke,” she fumed.
“In a desperate on-board situation, it’s good to be cautious, because you never know who might lose their cool when confronted,” Nicole Campoy Jackson, travel pro and advisor at Fora Travel, previously told People magazine.
“This is tricky because parents are often already on high alert and defensive when they fly with their children,” she told the outlet. “When they’re already upset and then they turn around and start hurling accusations, it makes for a less than pleasant flight for anyone.”
Instead, she advocated a calm approach of speaking directly to the parents and only involving flight attendants if the issue persists.
A mother recently made headlines after confronting two fellow passengers about her misbehaving child, who kept spewing abusive language and spit-laced slurs from the seat in front of her.
“The third time, my husband sternly told my parents, ‘If you can’t control your kids, I’ll control them for you,'” Sheila Monier recalled of a flight from Atlanta to Denver earlier this year.
After the mother in question retorted that people without children wouldn’t understand, Monier’s husband delivered the ultimate counterattack.
“‘We have five children and six grandchildren and none of us would do that,'” he was quoted as saying.
Disorderly behavior in airports and on airplanes is becoming more common, caused by adults behaving like children.
Recently in Taiwan, an adult traveller was filmed assaulting staff at Kinmen Airport, throwing a chair at them for unknown reasons.
Closer to home, a United Airlines passenger wearing a “Scarface” T-shirt chewed through a flight attendant’s uniform, forcing a Newark-bound flight to make an emergency landing.
Meanwhile, in Washington DC, a suspicious man in economy class was recently grounded after he chased a mother and daughter into the bathroom and then illegally boarded the family’s flight and sat next to them.
In 2022, the Federal Aviation Administration implemented a permanent zero tolerance policy for fraudulent activity.
Penalties can include counseling, fines, warnings and prosecution, as well as civil penalties of up to $37,000 per violation, according to the department.
