The Story Spreads
By the time we landed in Seattle, the story was already out.
Someone from Flight 302 had posted a video of the gate confrontation online. By the time we taxied to a small private terminal, that clip had been shared thousands of times.
The caption was simple:
“Flight attendant kicks mom and baby off the plane. Chairman finds out. Watch what happens.”
News sites picked it up. Talk shows debated it. Some people said it was an overreaction. Others said it was long overdue.
But a quiet, steady theme ran through a lot of the comments:
“I remember when my baby cried on a flight and everyone stared at me like I’d committed a crime.”
“I was told to ‘control my child’ during turbulence.”
“My son has sensory issues. We were almost removed once because he melted down when the seatbelt sign came on.”
People had stories. They’d been carrying them quietly.
Now they had somewhere to put them.
I wasn’t happy about the attention. But I wasn’t sorry about the conversation.
