Since mask mandates ended on airplanes, we’ve had a blessed lack of air rage in the last few months. That had to end at some point. Recently, a man threw a profanity-laced tirade on a Southwest flight because a baby was crying. A witness told WJZ about the outburst.
“Really, out of nowhere, he just kind of blurted out, ‘Shut that [expletive] baby up, and everyone was just kind of stunned,” Grabowski told WJZ Investigator Mike Hellgren. “Myself and a couple of passengers were kind of stunned and tried to calm him down. ‘Take a breath. None of us want to be in a situation. Let’s just calm down here.’ And he doubled down.”
The incident was of course caught on film.
This Baby was crying about 45 min on a plane and a man went off about it and when the flight attendant said “sir your yelling” he replied “So is the baby, Did that mf pay extra to yell”😂😭😭🥲✈️ pic.twitter.com/KqZRl3zQX5
— Raphousetv (RHTV) (@raphousetv2) April 20, 2023
It shouldn’t have to be said that adults should not behave like babies. It should also not have to be explained that flying can create very painful problems for babies who don’t know how to clear their ears. This is something that puzzles me: why aren’t airlines prepared to help babies with this problem? I was just on an airplane from Phoenix to New York with several babies. And just like clockwork, the second the plane starts to descend the crying begins. If the caregiver is not aware of the pressure changes that are affecting the baby, they are left to struggle to soothe a baby who is in pain. The usual methods won’t work. No toy will distract from the shooting pain in tiny eardrums.
The best way to soothe a baby on a plane is to make sure the baby is nursing or drinking from a bottle at the time of takeoff and landing. If that doesn’t work, there is a little-known trick that will equalize the pressure and stop the pain immediately. My mother used to take me on long flights over the ocean to see family every summer from the time I was a baby. I still remember the pain in my ears and the brilliant flight attendant who saved the day. I was about three years old and having a terrible time with ear pain when a flight attendant walked over with two paper coffee cups that had hot paper towels stuffed into the bottoms of them. “Put them over her ears,” she said. Immediately upon the cups sealing over my ears, the steam from the hot towels did something that took all the pain away. I don’t know how it works, it just does.
@the_ear_nurse This hack saves me every time!#EARACHE #EARPAIN #HACK Who can relate? Earache always starts at the most Inconvenient times. Middle of the night 🌝 Bank holidays ✌🏼 Abroad ✈️ Pretty much whenever you cannot access a GP or get to a shop to get some medication. This hack can be a #lifesaver & made using pretty much whatever you have to hand 🤚🏼 If you need to reheat the cloth you can pop the mug or cup in the microwave for a few seconds to reheat ☕️ HOW DOES IT WORK? The pressure created by the #heat in the towel helps #relax the #eardrum & #relieve the #pressure imbalance in the middleear. You could even use a #jar and a #clean item of clothing to dunk in hotwater. You really can make this anywhere providing you have something to soak, something to hold it in & something to heat with. I hope this #flightattendanttricks works for you 😁
Do they not know this trick anymore? All flight attendants should not only have that on backup but should also remind parents who are flying to offer drinks or the breast to any baby on take-off and landing. This should be included in every seatbelt speech they give. I’ve never heard a flight attendant remind people flying with babies that their ears are sensitive and they will experience discomfort with pressure changes and offer solutions to that discomfort. Why?
Forget about the immature passengers who don’t have any compassion for a crying baby or his stressed-out parents. They don’t deserve extra consideration (and are in need of a night in jail to remind them of their manners). But the babies in pain do deserve some extra attention. When I flew with my babies I knew this trick, and they rarely cried. The one time one of them did have a meltdown, a very compassionate man came to me and asked if he could walk her up and down the aisle for me. He took her and she instantly stopped crying. Sometimes babies want daddy-arms to hold them. That’s the kind of assistance we should be offering one another in a stressful situation from which there is no escape. No one likes flying but we can either make it better for one another or worse.
While we were landing in Dulles for a layover, the baby on my plane began to scream. I knew it was her ears. No one else seemed to and no one offered her mother any solutions. I would have if we weren’t landing and unable to get out of our seats. But the next time you see a parent in distress on a plane with a crying baby, try offering some help instead of condemnation. And if you can’t bring yourself to help, then buy some noise-cancelling headphones and mind your own business.