Screaming child lands Qantas in court

[k_sheep]

In all my years of medical practice I have never seen or heard of someones ear drums rupturing from noise. Infection and diving YES, toddlers NO. A medical expert witness should have been able to get this thrown out, I dread to think what type of medic would be prepared to act for her! Some people will do anything for money.

I've never heard of noise rupturing eardrums either - unless at the sonic boom level which a human definitely cannot generate.

+1 to us all agreeing. What a load of bollocks.

 

[mstyson]

Airlines do need to do something to stop the increasing number of delinquent screaming babies and children on flights. Children should be banned from Business and First Class cabins for a starter. Families are best sat together at the rear of the aircraft. Incessant noise from badly behaved children should not be tolerated. I usually take the role of a parent and scold children severely - it works and everyone around me congratulates me, including the cabin crew! The parents and children are usually appropriately stunned.

 

[nlagalle]

Airlines do need to do something to stop the increasing number of delinquent screaming babies and children on flights. Children should be banned from Business and First Class cabins for a starter. Families are best sat together at the rear of the aircraft. Incessant noise from badly behaved children should not be tolerated. I usually take the role of a parent and scold children severely - it works and everyone around me congratulates me, including the cabin crew! The parents and children are usually appropriately stunned.

We've had this discussion on here before and I am totally against banning kids from any class in the aircraft. My daughter has travelled in J before and i have received nothing but compliments on her behaviour. Not all kids are badly behaved you know. And as we all know adults can behave far worse too.

 

[drron]

Airlines do need to do something to stop the increasing number of delinquent screaming babies and children on flights. Children should be banned from Business and First Class cabins for a starter. Families are best sat together at the rear of the aircraft. Incessant noise from badly behaved children should not be tolerated. I usually take the role of a parent and scold children severely - it works and everyone around me congratulates me, including the cabin crew! The parents and children are usually appropriately stunned.

There are other methods.a month ago on a DJ flight to MKY there were 2 screaming kids.The FA took care of 1 and I read to the young fellow from the DJ magazine.The mother and the FA both thanked me.

 

[medhead]

I've never heard of noise rupturing eardrums either - unless at the sonic boom level which a human definitely cannot generate.

+1 to us all agreeing. What a load of bollocks.

Of course you have! Any decent explosion will rupture an ear drum by the air pressure wave. sound/noise is nothing more than a wave front traveling through air that creates change air pressure.

Of course a screaming baby isn't an explosion, even my kids.

 

[Princess Fiona]

Airlines do need to do something to stop the increasing number of delinquent screaming babies and children on flights. Children should be banned from Business and First Class cabins for a starter. Families are best sat together at the rear of the aircraft. Incessant noise from badly behaved children should not be tolerated. I usually take the role of a parent and scold children severely - it works and everyone around me congratulates me, including the cabin crew! The parents and children are usually appropriately stunned.

Spare a thought for the parents of screaming children. Are their offspring just badly behaved or could they have a disability? Shock :: horror:! A few years ago on a flight to CHC 10 mins out SYD, a little boy started screaming incessantly about a lost toy and bag. Parent explained bag was on plane ie.checked. Screaming continued for the next 15 mins. Child eventually calmed down. Parent was of course ME and child is Autistic. TOLERANCE please!
I should add that the FA's and majority of passengers were very understanding. Help such as that offered above would have been swiftly rebuffed !

 

[medhead]

Airlines do need to do something to stop the increasing number of delinquent screaming babies and children on flights. Children should be banned from Business and First Class cabins for a starter. Families are best sat together at the rear of the aircraft. Incessant noise from badly behaved children should not be tolerated. I usually take the role of a parent and scold children severely - it works and everyone around me congratulates me, including the cabin crew! The parents and children are usually appropriately stunned.

And that's what's wrong with people who don't have kids and obviously don't have the first clue. I'm not that quick on the uptake. But even I realise that my kids "scream" when they are bored, uncomfortable or hungry. Any half decent parent knows they have to do something to fix the problem, like read to the child. People who know nothing scold the kid. Which might keep them quiet for about 30 seconds but really only because it scares them and then after 30 seconds they scream even louder because they are scared. This is going to be even worst because now they are trapped with the thing that scared them.

The other issue is the person scolding is not the parent. They have no right to say anything to the child. If you want to control children give birth to your own. Pay to feed, clothe and educate them. You might come in with you 30 seconds of feel good scolding during your one hour flight but you don't have to live with the children 24/7. Do that and you might have a right to say something, you might realise that children are people as well with their own personalities and feelings, fears and desires. If you still insist on being the hero don't do it to my kids because I will well and truely scold you back.

Ohh I love the idea of a delinquent 2 month old - hanging out of street corners smoking, riding motorbikes etc.

 

[serfty]

I have had to do some moderation here. :-|

Please do not abuse members. If you feel a post is either ill informed, a "wind-up " or something else, you can employ the "Report Bad Post" facility by clicking the

icon to the lower left of each post.

 

[farstar]

I am confused did the child belong to QANTAS? I don't think it is anyone's fault but QANTAS has no liability in my opinion. The person who decided to sue QANTAS is the one who should be forced to pay all costs and get no money. I don't mind people at fault getting held responsible but if you sue people who have no responsibility it seems like extortion to me as you are banking on the fact they don't want publicity.

 

[BAM1748]

Airlines do need to do something to stop the increasing number of delinquent screaming babies and children on flights. Children should be banned from Business and First Class cabins for a starter. Families are best sat together at the rear of the aircraft. Incessant noise from badly behaved children should not be tolerated. I usually take the role of a parent and scold children severely - it works and everyone around me congratulates me, including the cabin crew! The parents and children are usually appropriately stunned.

Children should most definitely not be banned from any class on an aircraft.

Intolerance should be banned however.

Matt

 

[Dave Noble]

If all the relevent information was given in the article it would seem very strange to me for Qantas t pay out which makes me feel that there is more to the story.

e.g. as a purely hypothetical situation... passenger has a known ear injury and with the screaming speaks to cain crew to move due to the injury ; crew refuse and then the passenger gets a burst ear drum ... if there is more to the story which suggests that the crew did ( or failed to do ) something which could have avoided the injury then the claim would seem less bizarre

If there is nothing else, then time to start planning how to get a big payday

 

[samh004]

Airlines do need to do something to stop the increasing number of delinquent screaming babies and children on flights. Children should be banned from Business and First Class cabins for a starter. Families are best sat together at the rear of the aircraft. Incessant noise from badly behaved children should not be tolerated. I usually take the role of a parent and scold children severely - it works and everyone around me congratulates me, including the cabin crew! The parents and children are usually appropriately stunned.

I’m sure you’ll find parents on here with children that are basically WP’s, and are great in the sky in any class.

I have had issues myself with kids screaming in a/c, but the wise parents can figure out what’s wrong quickly, and you don’t often have bad parents that can’t. With a little understanding, it’s easy to ignore and not be abusive.

And to echo other parents here, if I HAD kids one day and someone like you scolded my kids, you’d get the same back at you. There’s no need for bullies.

Spare a thought for the parents of screaming children. Are their offspring just badly behaved or could they have a disability? Shock :: horror:! A few years ago on a flight to CHC 10 mins out SYD, a little boy started screaming incessantly about a lost toy and bag. Parent explained bag was on plane ie.checked. Screaming continued for the next 15 mins. Child eventually calmed down. Parent was of course ME and child is Autistic. TOLERANCE please!
I should add that the FA's and majority of passengers were very understanding. Help such as that offered above would have been swiftly rebuffed !

I would have thought you would have brought the bag and toy as hand carry knowing what autism is like. I have Asperger’s myself, and have studied autism, so know what you mean in that situation. I can recall a few incidents in my childhood acting similarly. Haha.

e.g. as a purely hypothetical situation... passenger has a known ear injury and with the screaming speaks to cain crew to move due to the injury ; crew refuse and then the passenger gets a burst ear drum …

The crew could refuse if there was no where to move to though, I hardly see how that would be the airlines fault.

 

[Dave Noble]

The crew could refuse if there was no where to move to though, I hardly see how that would be the airlines fault.

I'm giving that as an example of where omitted facts could make a significant difference to what a jury might say. If airline was warned that there was a health issue, it may no longer be a given that there was no case to answer. It wouldn't make quite so sensational press though

I find it odd that QF would pay out oif there was no chance of the claimant successfully being able to progress the case, though maybe there are no other facts and that they did just payout for a quiet life

Dave

 

[anat0l]

I find it odd that QF would pay out oif there was no chance of the claimant successfully being able to progress the case, though maybe there are no other facts and that they did just payout for a quiet life

Well there are a few factors there, which we have to consider in the context of this being filed in the USA.

The first one is that there is sizable precedent for people with such injuries to win such outrageous cases. Yes, I know some anecdotes are merely myths, but in other cases significant handouts have been made. If it was a trial by jury, the odds can be worse. I'm not saying QF had no chance, or even a bad chance of defending itself, but the chance of failure shouldn't be discounted even though we may regard (with common sense) this as an open-shut case. And should the woman have won the case she would have been awarded punitive damages in addition to whatever was awarded for the case itself. That can amount to a lot (given that the case also dragged on), and QF would've had to weigh this in on the risk analysis (i.e. the 'potential consequences' factor).

It does beg to reason how this case dragged on for one year.

The second factor, and probably more applicable one, is even though QF and the woman came to a settlement, we don't know how much this was. The idea here of course is to 'shut her up' and minimise the risk of any further potential damage (not to her ears!); given that the case has gone on for so long, perhaps QF might have taken this as some sort of a signal that they had a good chance of losing the case (whether rightly or wrongly).

Of course, realised that QF probably has the muscle to hire a fairly decent legal team to help them, but so there.

 

[Princess Fiona]

I’m sure you’ll find parents on here with children that are basically WP’s, and are great in the sky in any class.




I would have thought you would have brought the bag and toy as hand carry knowing what autism is like. I have Asperger’s myself, and have studied autism, so know what you mean in that situation. I can recall a few incidents in my childhood acting similarly. Haha.




The crew could refuse if there was no where to move to though, I hardly see how that would be the airlines fault.

Yes Sam you are right, we had every toy, carry on, pencil and book we could muster. What we didn't have sadly was the checked suitcase and one toy he had never asked for!
Kids including Special Needs kids can be unpredictable even on aircraft. Please be assured that the majority of parents are just as upset about their kids behaviour as the rest of the aircraft and trying desperately to make it stop, however calm they may appear outwardly.

 

[Flashback]

Well there are a few factors there, which we have to consider in the context of this being filed in the USA.

The first one is that there is sizable precedent for people with such injuries to win such outrageous cases. Yes, I know some anecdotes are merely myths, but in other cases significant handouts have been made. If it was a trial by jury, the odds can be worse. I'm not saying QF had no chance, or even a bad chance of defending itself, but the chance of failure shouldn't be discounted even though we may regard (with common sense) this as an open-shut case. And should the woman have won the case she would have been awarded punitive damages in addition to whatever was awarded for the case itself. That can amount to a lot (given that the case also dragged on), and QF would've had to weigh this in on the risk analysis (i.e. the 'potential consequences' factor).

It does beg to reason how this case dragged on for one year.

The second factor, and probably more applicable one, is even though QF and the woman came to a settlement, we don't know how much this was. The idea here of course is to 'shut her up' and minimise the risk of any further potential damage (not to her ears!); given that the case has gone on for so long, perhaps QF might have taken this as some sort of a signal that they had a good chance of losing the case (whether rightly or wrongly).

Of course, realised that QF probably has the muscle to hire a fairly decent legal team to help them, but so there.

With the other thing being... if you lose the case, in the US; you don't have to pay court costs / legal costs to the party that won. Here, you do.

 

[Flying Fox]

let out a scream so severe that blood erupted from her ears

Wow what a set of lungs. Surely other passengers would have been effected and suffer the same consequences?

Are they all taking legal action too?

 

[NM]

If all the relevent information was given in the article it would seem very strange to me for Qantas t pay out which makes me feel that there is more to the story.

We don't know if Qantas actually paid anything in this case. All we know is that a confidential settlement agreement was reached.

Its quite possible that Qantas determined that the cost of defending the action was not warranted and all they could be awarded if the won the case is the court costs, which would likely fall way short of their actual costs. So even a small payment may have been determined their best action.

While I agree its all speculation and we don't know all the facts, its quite possible Qantas just decided to take the lowest cost option available to them.