Australian mom Natalie Williamson says a male flight attendant on a Virgin Blue flight from Fiji to Sydney locked her 17-month-old son Riley in the overhead bin for about 10 seconds, scarring both her son and herself. Virgin offered the family free flights and fired the attendant, who claims he was merely helping Williamson's now-estranged husband play a game of peek-a-boo with the baby. "For days on end I was crying," Williamson says, and Riley is so traumatized that despite seeing various specialists, he refuses to "leave my sight now." How misguided was this stunt? (Watch a discussion about the incident)
Virgin overreacted: Locking a toddler in the overhead bin was a "bad call," obviously, says David Parker Brown in Airline Reporter. But probably not bad enough to warrant firing the flight attendant. And Virgin isn't the only party blowing things out of proportion. I mean, look, "I am no counselor, but it seems a bit odd that Riley would have so many issues after only a few seconds in the overhead bin."
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