A crying man threw a temper tantrum over a crying baby on a Southwest Airlines flight earlier this week. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite like this before…
Man loses it over baby’s incessant crying
This incident occurred during a flight to Florida, on Monday, April 17, 2023. Specifically, the flight was supposed to land at Fort Lauderdale Airport (FLL), but had to enter a holding pattern over Florida due to weather. Then following this incident, the plane had to divert to Orlando Airport (MCO).
It was allegedly bumpy during the extended holding pattern, and the flight was also longer than expected, so some passengers became impatient. Not surprisingly, a baby was crying during this part of the flight, leading to another guy losing it.
In the video that was initially shared on TikTok, a man can be seen losing his patience over a crying baby. The man started by telling the parents that they needed to shut their baby up. The crew then got involved, and it escalated from there. Among other things, the man said:
- “Can you calm the child down, please? I had headphones on, I was sleeping.”
- “Why is the baby yelling? I’m not screaming. Want me to scream? I’ll f*cking scream, please stop the baby.”
- “If that child was a Black baby, what the f*ck would be happening right now?”
- “We are not in Florida yet, you cannot do what the f*ck you feel like.”
- “We are in a f*cking tin can with a baby in a g*ddamn echo chamber, and you want to talk to me about being f*cking okay?”
The rant goes on and on, and the man uses about two dozen expletives. You can watch it below, though as you can tell, a lot of the language will be offensive to some.
Kudos to the crew for how calmly they handled the situation, and also how they deescalated. Once the situation became bad, flight attendants moved the mother and the baby to another part of the plane, away from this guy.
Here’s the statement Southwest issued about this incident:
“We do not have details on this flight to share but commend our flight crew for their professionalism and offer our apologies to the other customers onboard.”
The flight diverted & man was removed from plane
After being unable to calm the man down, the decision was made to divert to Orlando, and authorities were contacted. When the flight diverted to Orlando, the man was informed that he had to deplane. However, he reportedly refused to do so, and as a result the airline made the decision to deplane everyone, in order to minimize the drama. Other passengers could then continue to Fort Lauderdale, while this man couldn’t.
Authorities ended up meeting the flight, and this man was escorted off, but he didn’t end up being arrested or charged with anything. If this man wanted to avoid crying babies, I think it’s safe to say he probably wasn’t very happy about being dropped off in Orlando. 😉
Bottom line
I don’t think anyone likes the sound of crying babies, from parents to strangers. While not all parents do an equally good job managing their babies on planes, the reality is that there are some situations where you just can’t calm a baby, and they’re going to scream no matter what you do.
Of course that’s kind of annoying, but it’s also to be expected when you’re in a metal tube with 150+ other people, there are pressure changes, etc. This guy’s reaction is of course totally out of line, and then some. Maybe he was having a rough day, or maybe he has some other issues. Regardless, hopefully he gets the help he needs, so that he doesn’t act like this again.
What do you make of this Southwest Airlines baby incident?
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