To think it’s wrong of this man to film a child?

[MrsA2015]

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5391341/Passenger-films-toddlers-eight-hour-tantrum-flight.html

I can see why he filmed it but for it to be put on the net is too far! I feel quite sorry for the mother she must have felt mortified

That has completely put me off flying. Why would any parent put their child through that? Why should a plane full of passengers have to put up with that level of noise - for 8 fekking hours!!

The guy who posted the video did the wrong thing. If the child does have a disability why does a stranger have the right to film and post online and why should I get the cabin crew to make an announcement about my kids' difficulties, labelling us to the whole plane of 400+ people? Pointing out people's differences doesn't always result in happier outcomes. The video is a highly edited version of what happened that will obviously show the worst moments of an 8 hour flight. I would never intentionally take videos of someone else's child.

You never know the circumstances of the family shown, why they were flying and what had happened the day before.

I recently flew with all three of my disabled children from Australia (home) to the UK to see family who are too old and frail to fly themselves. We weren't travelling for fun. The kids are usually ok on short flights but we were the family that no one wanted to be near. It was mortifying and the worst 14 hours of my life, but what was I supposed to do? Get the pilot to turn the plane around 1 hour into a 14 hour flight when my boys got overwhelmed by the sheer choice of entertainment, the lights, the buttons and the noise of the engines? I could not anticipate these challenges ahead of time. Flying is a very over stimulating experience and you can't always pick the triggers.

I am very grateful that no one filmed my 9 year old mid meltdown on the flight, kicking arms flailing and screaming. Most people ignored us, a couple of nice people even smiled at me after 12 hours and one lovely lady asked if she could help. They could see that we were having a hard time and tried to help rather than shame.

The next leg (7 hours) was better because the kids had exhausted themselves on the first flight and hadn't slept for close to 24 hours.

The way back was still a challenge but by then we had learned what what the triggers were on long haul flights and we had worked out the best way to keep the kids calm.

I don't begruge the disabled flying. But I also have OCD and clinical anxiety, and sounds and being stuck in a confined space with an unknown child running around, possibly touching me, is my personal idea of hell, and would 100% send me into a panic attack, i.e. the behavior might cause other passengers medical difficulties. And they also have the right that their disabilities or needs be respected. When your child, developmentally disabled or no, starts invading my personal space and my senses for 8 hours with no intervention, you best believe I wouldn't take that sitting down. I probably wouldn't say anything to the mother, but I probably would record, just to give to the airline. All those passengers deserve a refund I think.

I will also add though that I sedate myself before getting on a plane because I know me having a panic attack would be bad for others and myself; before that my parents did since I was 13.

I will also add though that I sedate myself before getting on a plane because I know me having a panic attack would be bad for others and myself; before that my parents did since I was 13.

Just so you know in an emergency you might be fit for.nothing under sedation and no one will carry your sedated self off an aircraft.

You arent supposed to be sedated in case of emergencies.

Well thanks Nicki. No one ever drinks on planes for that reason either I've noticed... I think I'll trust my doctors. I'm actually at peace that I will die in an emergency situation. I'm not a survivor type :) I'd so much rather die because I was relaxed during routine but stressful travel instead of wanting to rip of my own skin for every minute of flights that can take hours.

Also, sedated means took a Xanax and went for a nap, not medically put in a coma. Jeez. If I can go to work and school and general life having taken one, I'm pretty sure I can make it through an emergency situation without being a massive burden on others.

This article makes me feel so sad. Yes, it must have been awful for the passengers to listen to 8 hours of screaming, but surely most people would understand that the child has SEN. A NT child would not scream for 8 hours. The toddler is clearly distressed. The man filming it clearly has no understanding of this.

I can't believe nobody spoke up or asked to get off before take off if they weren't going to take this extremely agitated passenger off. It was clearly going to be the flight from hell.

If you remove a passenger from a flight that’s boarded you also have to remove their baggage for safety reasons so by asking the mum and child to leave, the rest of the passengers would have a two hour wait on the tarmac.

The cabin crew probably thought he would calm down once in the air. They weren’t to know that he would be distressed for 8 hours.

But we don't have all the facts. How do we know he screamed for 8 hours from a 3 minute clip, as has been suggested many times upthread.

Wouldn't he be exhausted after 8 hours of scteaming. I can't imagine anyone, let alone a small person can go on for so long.

Horrible situation all around. If this is typical behaviour for the kid then I do feel desperately sorry for the mother who has to deal with it for more than just the 8 hour flight. I also feel sorry for the kid for being subjected to conditions that he clearly couldn't cope with, and realistically the mother must have at least had some idea that there was a significant risk of this happening.

But the other passengers aren't psychic and if you don't tell the other passengers that the kid is autistic, not all are going to realise. Anyone who doesn't realise, you can't blame them for not making allowances. And even if they do realise, without knowing for certain that the flight was essential (and really, its mere speculation by other posters that it MUST have been essential...maybe the mum just wanted a holiday and felt that an uncomfortable 8 hour flight was an acceptable price to pay) other passengers were entitled to be pissed of that the mother subjected them all to that, especially given how limited her attempts to curtail the offending behaviour were.

So really, I have sympathy with all sides, and don't blame the man for filming it and shaming what he perceived to be an atrociously behaved child and an ineffectual parent with no consideration for other passengers. If he hadn't been told otherwise, you can't expect him to know or to make allowances for it. And there is a limit to the extent of the allowances most of us will make anyway; tolerating 8 hours of that goes beyond most people's' limit I suspect.

"He didn't seem to be restrained in anyway for take off, surely that is wrong in itself."

The plane would not have taken off without the child being sat down with his seat belt on and if the crew didn't think the child could stay there still the seat belt off sign they would have insisted they left the plane.

Nice to know the disabled aren’t begrudged flying. Interesting to know they’re not allowed holidays if it might inconvenience others though.

FFS. I think the point is that the family would be unlikely to fly unless absolutely necessary if they knew the child was likely to behave in that way because however traumatised the other passengers are it’s a lot less traumatic than being the person responsible for it or the child who is distressed.

I would not put my grown up adult son on a plane unless I had to because I think there is a large risk he would do the adult equivalent of that. Half his family live across a body of water with no bridges. So to avoid flying we drive for 12 hours & take a ferry. It also costs us about £800 rather than the £100 odd it would for 3 of us to fly on a cheap airline. We pay for a cabin to keep him away from the nice normal people. And ferry passengers still suck lemons. However, why shouldn’t he visit family? He has fuck all except family in his life right now. If there was no ferry alternative I probably would risk a flight and hope for the best (certainly would have at the age that child was - possibly with the same results).

Please look at the way some of you are writing about people with disabilities here. Are they only allowed out if it’s 100% predictable that they are going to behave in a ‘normal’ way.

Before the ferry route we use had ferries with cabins my son could sometimes get distressed during the ‘wait to get to the car deck bit’. He was a large child, using no words. No danger to anyone. Loud, yes, but loud for about ten minutes. And still people would eye roll and be shits.

And no it is not my job to educate people. It’s pointless anyway. The eye rollers and lemon suckers don’t suddenly become kind and misty eyed if you give what they are seeing a name. They just say something like ‘well he shouldn’t be doing that’ or glare harder. If they need an explanation they’re probably not going to understand the explanation. It’s hard to start explaining when you are having to deal with the distress anyway.

I have been known to mouth ‘don’t stare’ at gawpers old enough to know better but that’s as far as I’ll go now.

If someone ever videos him distressed and puts him on You Tube or sells him to the Daily Mail I can’t imagine the anger I would feel. It’s really, really not acceptable. And anyone who thinks it’s okay should ask themselves how they would feel if someone videoed them during a period of extreme distress and sold it to the highest bidder.

This man cannot have known on boarding that this behaviour would go for a long period ( if it did) so he must frequently film distressed children and adults. It could be anyone's child next although he may particularly target more vulnerable people to avoid someone ramming the phone down his throat.

Well put, Devilish

Spikey that’s a really good point, what’s his excuse for starting filming the minute he got in the plane, except being a cunt?

We flew back from Cuba next to a family with an adult DS with very obvious autism. He was also non communitive. Before the flight they came around and explained he had autism but they would do all they could to make the flight as painless as possible for him and everyone around him.

He was in the aisle seat across from me and DC. Before take off they gave him headphones and engaged him in a puzzle game on the seat table. He had to put it up for take off and this was the only time he became distressed. He was rubbing himself repeatedly (on his gentials) but his father apologised and explained this was what he does to calm himself and covered him with a blanket. The rest of the flight was him moaning and humming to himself repeatedly.

It was NO issue for us at all. The parents were doing all they could. They explained and had strategies in place. We explained to the DC not to stare at him and get on with their own thing.

In general I think the public are much more kind if they are told what’s going on and someone is trying to do something about it.

If someone has obvious autism why is there a need to explain everything? People should not be expected to spend their lives explaining everything.

because however traumatised the other passengers are it’s a lot less traumatic than being the person responsible for it or the child who is distressed.

But whilst I don't discount the distress to parent or child in this scenario, I also think that distress to the other passengers should be acknowledged as well. IF it were actually eight hours of the child verbalising in the way it was shown in the video, that is a long time to be held in a long metal tube with that sort of repetitive noise pattern.

I saw this, it was awful to watch (for all concerned, crew, child, other passangers etc).
However, we also only have the video makers word it was 8 SOLID hours, I find it a little hard to believe it was 8 constant hours (I think the pilot would have diverted to offload if so, they've done for less and only recently I read that a family were offloaded before take off because of a similar situation as the other passengers could not hear/understand the flight safety instructions).

@5plusMeAndHim it's not an it.

5plus I hope like hell that's a typo.