A flight attendant offered to help a mother carry her baby off a flight but instead dropped her, causing a broken nose and concussion.
It’s truly a sad story with enough blame to go around. Aeroflot operates a low-cost subsidiary called Pobeda. Based in Moscow Vnukovo, Pobeda serves a number of domestic and international destinations using its fleet of Boeing 737 aircraft.
Earlier this week, a Pobeda flight landed in Surgut, a Western Siberia town roughly in the geographic center of the Russian Federation. A mother was traveling with her five-month-old daughter and a flight attendant noticed her hands were full. Thus, he offered to carry the baby down the airstairs while the mother carried her bags. The mother agreed.
But the baby was not securely strapped into her car seat. Tragically, as the FA proceeded down the aircraft stairs the baby fell out, landing head first against the metal stairwell. She suffered a broken nose and concussion.
For its part, the airline did not shy away from responsibility. Its statement not only took responsibility for the incident but promised to pay all medical expenses for the baby:
We are very sorry. The accident truly did happen. A very careful investigation is being conducted now, and we will inform about the details later. The air carrier will fully compensate all the expenses associated with the treatment of the child.
CONCLUSION
The FA apparently felt really bad and traveled to the hospital to visit the child. Other witnesses have said that the FA truly was just trying to help an overburdened mother in subzero temperatures.
It’s a very sad story that unfortunately will discourage FAs from ever lending a helping hand. While the FA failed to notice that the baby was improperly strapped in, the mother also shares blame for failing to secure her daughter before handing her over. Let’s hope the little one makes a full recovery.
image: Papas Dos / Flickr
Flight attendants can still help but probably better for them to help carry the luggage so the mother can carry the baby.
Came here to say this. As a father of a 3 and a 1-year old, it’s striking how often airline, hotel and ground transportation staff offer to help by carrying our daughters rather than our bags. Let me take care of my kids, and, if you truly want to help, just haul my bags!
Some people find it comforting for a flight attendant to offer help with children so that the passenger can deal with the luggage. I do think that parents should make sure that their children are securely fastened in their car seats or strollers before excepting help from anybody.
In all fairness, your kids are probably way cuter than than your luggages. It’s optional service. Everyone prefers the cute ones.
I am a FA and i have many times offered help but i am offering to help with the bags. The other day a mother just handed me her infant and i was kind shocked as i was not expecting it. But i have to say it is a great feeling that total strangers trust you enough to hand over theyre kids.
This feels like a situation where we should definitely learn from the mistakes (ie. not strapping in the baby to the car seat) but also where assigning or finding “blame” does not seem to make sense. It sounds like an honest to goodness accident.
Justin is right: we should distinguish responsibility and blame. They can both be partially responsible for the unfortunate outcome, without being blameworthy for it.
The two international U.S. airlines I flew for did not allow fight attendant to hold babies. It was sometimes an awkward rule to comply with, but reading an article like this makes me – in hindsight – understand the company policies!
It’s Russia. They are not trigger happy to file lawsuits or attribute malign intention like Americans.
How about we carry anything and you mind people take care of their own problems. We, cabin crew are primarily are their for safety and security of the passengers. So if we lend a hand, that is nothing but out of good will. If you fail to see that please make sure that you carry your baby and a number of bags that you could carry!!!
Thats y in the airline i work for we offer to help to carry the bags and we are not allowed to carry the infant
As a Flight Attendant, we are not allowed to hold Passengers kids/ babies. Our job is to assist them with their bags. So sorry this happened to the infant, and I also feel for the Flight Attendant as well who was offering assistance.