because airport security tampered with my babyharness and did not tell me?

[Ionama]

On a recent attempt to go on holiday, I took off my Baby Bojorn harness and put it thru the xray, I put it on the way I had taken it off and plugged my baby back into the strap I had opened. 5 minutes later may baby fell out of the carrier resulting in a serious injury and I have come to find that 2 side buttons of the harness had been undone. The trip ended up being a 5 day stay in hospital for my baby (and us). No-one told me to come while they 'inspected' my carrier and it was simply in the tray with my hand bag etc. Am I being unreasonable in wanting them to inform parents if/when they do this?.. so that another child's safety is never again compromised..? I am still very much in shock and recovery from my baby's injury... :(

Exactly. The op feels strongly enough to write on a public forum that airport staff 'tampered with' her belongings. That's a pretty serious allegation,and I'm unsure why she doesn't seem prepared to give location, terminal, date etc. These simple facts would show that she has proper evidence to substantiate her allegation- because that's what it is

www.mississauga.com/news/article/216980--baby-falls-to-death-at-pearson

something similar to this has happened before

botty -that's not really similar. the baby in the news report fell form a first floor level, over the barrier onto the floor below. nothing to do with security at all, and nothing to do with a baby carrier either. a tragic accident all the same.

Silverfrog I know not exactly the same, and my sympathies are with both families, that and the OP but I was just trying to point out that it might not be totally inconceivable.

Still want to know what airport though

Ok, well I'm getting the feeling that this may not be real. (I do have a tendancy to get suckered into things fairly easily )

Anyway, all I was trying to say is..... If the op writes a letter to the airport but it was nothing to do with security then the letter gets filed somewhere and that's the end of it. If op doesn't write a letter and it does happen to someone else then she will be kicking herself and will probably feel pretty damn guilty that she did nothing about it.

I find it very hard to believe that, even though the OP called the ambulance herself, no airport staff were involved at all at the time. Surely, if an incident is bad enough to require an ambulance, the airport are going to want to log the incident in their records, and find out how it happened?

And if it is true, then whilst I have great sympathy for the parents and for the child who suffered a serious injury, the final responsibility for the child's safety rested with the parents. Since the security staff were handling people's belongings, the OP should have checked the harness when she put the baby back in.

The fact she might sue is exactly why she's not naming airport surely?

And also she shouldn't be asking to see their CCTV etc herself, she should get a lawyer to start investigations/proceedings.

IF an ambulance was called to an airport it's usually the airports own emergancy service.

SDTG - you make a series of very valid points.

Also, would the airport not have trained first aiders on hand, who would stay with the OP until the ambulance arrived in a situation like this?

And what about the other passengers? Who else witnessed this? I know if I saw this happen to a wee baby, I would not be able to stand back.

but botty, the only similarity is that is is an accident, which happened to a baby, at an airport. Nothing else is the same at all.

It is much the same as googling and linking to a story about a toddler having an accident on an escalator at an airport - the only linkig detail is the airport.

yes, accidents can happen to anyone at an airport.

well i'd be bloody pissed off.

and i'd write to the airport with a formal complaint.

i do think you need to tell the parent if you've changed something as crucial as a sling. of course.

they effectively made the sling unusable.

Silver - ok we disagree, I was trying to be charitable and suspend my disbelief and was looking on the internet to see if anything like this had ever happened before as I am a suspicious old bitch sometimes.

It's such a slow news day that the amount of pay received by a Roman charioteer was one of the main items on the Radio 4 Today programme. A story like a badly injured baby at an airport caused by security staff unclipping its harness would have had top-billing....

there is no evidence they did though warthog, the op only noticed the buttons were undone five days after the accident.

OP - when did this happen and what airport was it at?

If she's seriously got A case, then surely she'd be instructing a solicitor rather than posting on AIBU on mumsnet?

I am currently suing tescos a major supermarket chain because I slipped and fell in the store and broke my tailbone.

If I was asked I might say "it was a large store in Northern Ireland and it happened towards the end of September last year"

Being me, I'd be much more likely to name the store and the actual date.

Surely if the OP is telling the truth, and given that this forum is anonymous, naming the airport and telling when it happened makes no difference.

Also, if this happened in a crowded busy airport terminal, as chil says, I'd expect it to make at the very least the local news.

I agree with the sceptics on here. If she's not suing why not? And surely there must have been a big kerfuffle when it happened. In fact given poor dc is was in hospital, I'm surprised it didn't make the papers.

Ionama Fri 13-Aug-10 00:05:00

"I always check and double check any strap or safety device I put my children in"

Also, OP, you say that this happened on the outward journey.

Does that mean you carried on with your holiday?

Just coming into this thread, I do get the impression that the OP is looking to 'blame someone' and perhaps all is not as it seems. You put your possessions through the Xray and it comes out a couple of seconds later, it doesnt go anywhere and neither do you! Surely you would have spotted if someone was examining the carrier. Such a serious fall would have to be notified to the airport and there will be a record of such a major incident. Surely the airport staff were involved...

OP no one was in your house while you were in the hospital?

What did you do with the 7 year old? Did no one go home to get you a change of knickers? Did one or other of you never go home to get a sleep or change of clothes? Or did you never send parents / siblings to get something?

Right, let's suspend our disbelief for a moment.

Let's suppose the security staff undo the buttons on a baby harness to check for drugs/explosive substances.

Let's suppose they find some.

Now, they haven't actually checked whose property this is, or got the owner to stand and watch while they do the check.

Are they really just going to then call out, 'Erm, anyone own up to this?'
The owner would quickly slip away into the crowd. Particularly if this happened in a country where a life sentence in terrible conditions would be the consequence.

There is too much that just doesn't ring true about this. The staff would always carry out any investigation of an item with the passenger right there. I am also intrigued as to how the OP 'knows' the staff were handling lots of items but also didn't see her harness being tampered with.

On reflection I think it probably did happen but that it was nothing to do with airport security and the OP is looking for someone to blame because she failed to check that the carrier was fastened properly.