Don't mess with a CPS Tech!
Moms View Message Board: Parenting Discussion: Don't mess with a CPS Tech!
This is one of the CPS Techs on a Car Seat board I belong to.
Baby's Seat Booted Off Plane
Airline Apologizes For Infant Seat Mishap
By Michelle Frey
News 8 WMTW
March 30, 2007
GORHAM, Maine -- An airline has upset the wrong mother after forcing a
certified child safety technician to hold her 6-month-old child on a flight
rather than allow him to sit in a child safety seat.
Jodi Polchies, of Gorham, said she was returning to Portland from a child
safety conference in Chicago when a U.S. Airways flight attendant informed
her that she could not bring her infant car seat on board the final leg of
their flight.
"He said, 'Rear-facing car seats are not allowed on this aircraft,'"
Polchies told News 8. "And so I explained to him that I had purchased Joshua
a ticket, that we had used it on the other flights, including the same type
of aircraft from Portland to Philadelphia. He still said, 'It's not
allowed.'"
Polchies said she was forced to gate-check the seat and hold her baby during
the flight, despite having paid for a second ticket. She added that after
the plane door was locked, the flight attendant realized the mistake.
"(He) looked it up and showed us the page. He should have been allowed to
use it up until 20 pounds. But there was nothing I could do," she said.
Suzanne Cook, state-wide coordinator of KidSafe Maine, explained, "With him
just being unrestrained on her lap, he becomes a flying missile in a crash
-- or even turbulence."
She added, "You think about it -- they make us stow our purses and our
laptop computers, and they even restrain the coffee pot on an airplane. I
don't think children are any less important than laptop computers and coffee
pots."
Polchies' request for a refund or an apology went unanswered until Friday,
when an U.S. Airways representative at the Portland International Jetport
called to say that the airline made a mistake and will be making an effort
to better educate its attendants.
Polchies also is asking the airline for a new seat, saying hers was out of
sight during the flight, and she has no idea if it was handled correctly.
Yikes! They need to do a car seat inservice, with those flight attendants!
Nice!! Some heads are going to roll..
Well, you know this has happened to heaven knows how many parents from this flight attendant and others. Maybe this will make USAir decide to actually do some training or at least send out a general memo. This is, of course, appalling. (Philadelphia is a hub city for USAir so I have lots of experience with them through my bosses' travel - some of it not very good.)
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