Originally Posted by
Transpacificflyer
And you are missing the point. A child that screams for a prolonged period of time is an abnormal event and one most likely avoided. The issue isn't the short crying fits children can have. The parents had an obligation to calm the child or to not fly if the child was physically or emotionally unfit to travel. Physically or emotionally unfit children are not secrets and they do not appear magically. If the guardian is aware of the condition and still flies, the guardian is responsible for the noise event.
The airline has a vicarious liability because it controls the cabin and did not do its utmost to ensure the complainant customer's enjoyment of use of the cabin paid for. The airline has the option of seating children in a specific section of the aircraft, and it also has an option of excluding young children from the premium cabin. The airline did not do this.
Although unlikely, it can happen. Unfortunately I have my family and infant son as an example. My son flew 8 segments, and was never a problem that we couldn't solve by giving him milk, a pacifier, food, toys, crazy faces, lifts in the air, a walk in the cabin, etc... We are normally very prepared and plan our travelling accordingly by properly timing naps and food, getting bulk head seats, and being on bigger planes, but on 1 flight segment after those 8 we were unable to plan. Found out in the morning that my grand father in law had a stroke and was expected to die within 24 hours or less. I bought the next available flight out for the three of us. No time to have my son take his nap early or later, he was interrupted at daycare right after he only got a few minutes of sleep. He was cranky on that flight and for an hour nothing we did would calm him down for more than a couple of minutes. For an hour, he was crying on and off loudly. It didn't help that it was a bumpy flight, the seat belt sign was on, and we couldn't get up and walk around (I'm 99% certain if we could have walked while having him strapped on, it would have calmed him down). He was perfect on the next flight segment, when we had time at the stop over to get all his needs attended to and he got his nap.
Everybody around us had lots of words of encouragement and knew we tried hard. We were letting everybody get off first since he finally fell asleep and we had a few things to gather and clean up before we deplaned and we would probably have to wait for the stroller at the door. A grumpy old man cussed at us loudly as he passed us by and called us unfit parents. The people in front of him called him out for it. Unless you are right next to the parents and kids, it's hard to judge what the parents have done to calm the child.
My son flew many times after that as an infant along with my daughter later on as an infant. Again, no more than a few seconds of crying before we were able to get it under control. Just because a child cried for a long period of time doesn't mean there was a physical or emotional condition. Sometimes it's just bad luck.