What am I missing...?

http://nz.totaltravel.yahoo.com/news-opinions/news/a/-/8962199/baby-shoved-in-airplane-locker/

Baby shoved in airplane locker
March 7, 2011, 7:57 am Yahoo!Xtra Travel Yahoo!Xtra


Apparently hiding toddlers in overhead lockers is not funny, as a male Virgin Blue hostie discovered last week.

He thought he was joining 17-month old Riley and his parents in a game of hide and seek by grabbing the boy and popping him in the overhead locker – and latching it – for at least 10 seconds.

But that’s not the way distraught mother, Natalie Williamson, saw it.

The family were heading home from Fiji to Sydney when Riley’s dad Shayne was playing a mid-air game of peek-a-boo. The hostie decided to join in and Virgin Blue have now sacked him.

"I stood up and there were people laughing," said Mrs Williamson. "Then I said 'Get my son out of there now'," she told the Sunday Herald Sun. "I was devastated. I was absolutely devastated. I was crying. My husband was in shock. For days on end I was crying."

The airline apologised to the Williamsons (who have since split up) and refunded the two return flights, but says she is too shaken by the experience to fly again.

Meanwhile Riley is also said to be suffering from the airplane ordeal, unable to leave his mother’s sight and sleeping with her. He is now 20 months old and has seen specialists to help with anxiety and withdrawal.


Here's what I get:

1. I would have been pissed as hell too. I'm glad the dude got fired. You don't handle a stranger's kid. You just don't. Oh, and you don't stuff them into overhead bins.

Here's what I don't get:

1. The kid was in the bin for (somewhere in the neighborhood of) 10 seconds. I'm not sure why the mom was crying "for days on end" and is now "too shaken by the experience to fly." I'd be like, "Damn right, free tickets! See ya next week!"

2. Why would the kid have anxiety or withdrawal based on a 10-second experience? Did the guy flash him before sticking him in the compartment (no innuendo intended)?

3. Why wasn't the correlation being drawn between the kid's mental issues and the parent's separation rather than trumping it up into a part of the "overhead compartment ordeal?"

As Forrest would say:

what would possess you to grab someones child and put them in an overhead compartment??? that would have ended with my fist in his face.
but i agree. the anxiety and all is def more likely the separation. the kid (being kids) probably thought the compartment thing was funny.

why was the child out of the parents arms and playing hide'n'seek on a plane flight ???
perhaps the kids distress is linked to mum and Dads emotional reaction to the incident.

i'm not sure what they were actually doing... one place says hide and seek (horrible idea in my opinion)... one spot said peek-a-boo... not so bad. lol. it would have to be the first i guess for the situation to make sense. lol.