The Airplane Incident

Spring break is always a great time to fly off to somewhere and escape from life as you know it for a taste of adventure and experience somewhere other than home. To do this we sometimes have to take an airplane to get there.

I used to hate to fly. My ears would bother me and I tend to be somewhat claustrophobic. Over the years I've gotten to actually look forward to flying. It's much faster than driving which allows for a longer vacation! :)

This spring break I went to Hilton Head Island in South Carolina, which is amazing by the way. It was great to have weather in the 70's....perfect for golfing!!!! Well, it was the plane ride home that is my focus. I had a connecting flight in Atlanta, GA.

Everyone boarded the plane and to our discomfort there was a screaming child in the back of the plane. Not just a little crying and fussiness. This was all out whaling to the point of piercing in your ears. It was a two year old little girl and she was having nothing to do with putting on her seat belt. The male stewardess was trying to get the mother to calm her child down so we could taxi down the runway. To no avail. He approached the mother again and I heard her say,"she's two years old.....what do you expect?" I really felt sorry for her. You could see the annoyance by all the passengers. Everyone just wanted to get in the air so you could put your headphones on and tune the crying out.

We began to taxi out and for a second it was quiet. Finally, we were on our way. All of a sudden the pilot came on the speaker saying he had a "concerned passenger" and we would be returning to the dock for a brief time and he apologized for the delay it would cause. Nobody knew what was going on. I was hoping they weren't going to ask the mother to leave the plane. A security guard came on the plane and went to the back of the plane and escorted a man off the plane. He returned a short while later only to tell the woman with the child that he was being ejected from this flight and she is to fly home without him. She was upset and crying but stayed on the plane without him. It must have been awful for her to do that knowing he was the cause of the plane to be delayed and the unknown of what is going to happen to him. The plane finally resumed its flight and we were about 25mins. late getting into Milwaukee. The little girl was quiet the whole way until we were about to land then she began to get fussy but not to the degree before.

When we got off the plane I saw the mother standing off to the side and I approached her and let her know that i felt for her and she thanked me. I found out later that the husband made a personal assault on the male stewardess' sexual preference. I'm appalled that someone would spew their mouth off like that in this day and age. I'm sure just being kicked off the plane was only the beginning of the trouble he caused for himself.