Crying Baby Leads to Mid-Air Brawl. Plus, Tips for Traveling With a Baby During the Holidays

Air China flight turns into a huge mom brawl. (Photo: Twitter)

The moral of the story: don’t mess with a mom dealing with a crying baby. They’ve had enough.

An all-out brawl broke out on an Air China flight from Chongqing to Hong Kong— a fight that started over a crying baby.

The Daily Mail reports two women complained to a third woman that her baby was making too much noise and demanded she silence the child. The mom and the two women exchanged words and the two women reportedly retaliated by reclining their seats all the way back. And then it was “go time.”

“She started shouting back at them and before I knew what was happening she leant over the seat and punched one of them,” a passenger tells The Daily Mail. “They then started hitting her and all hell broke loose.”

A Voice of America correspondent posted a pic of the alleged fight: a woman, presumably the mother, is in mid-air, as if she’s attempting some kind of martial arts flying kick.

Says the witness: “They were fighting, the baby was now screaming and other passengers were shouting. It was like some bizarre film.”

The plane managed to land in Hong Kong on time and the police reportedly interviewed the combatants.

Related: Travel Rant: How to Not Hate That Crying Baby on Your Plane

Every traveler has their own horror stories about enduring crying babies on planes. But sometimes those piercing wails do lead to violence. In 2013, a man on a Delta flight landing in Atlanta slapped a 19-month-old toddler sitting next to him, and yelled at the mother to “shut that (n-word) baby up.” The man later pleaded guilty to simple assault and was sentenced to eight months in prison.

This man slapped a baby on a plane (Photo: Mugshots.com)

And back in 2004, a U.S. traveler on a flight from Miami to Brazil got annoyed with a crying baby and allegedly threw a cup of water in the child’s face. Police say flight attendants had to “restrain other passengers who wanted to beat him up.”

Newsflash to impatient fliers like the ones on the Air China flight: Parents can’t do much to quiet a screaming baby.

Yahoo Travel’s executive editor Laura Begley Bloom, who has a young child herself, shares some tips if you’re flying with a baby this holiday season:

• Your little one’s ears can hurt during takeoff and landing, so give them a bottle or breastfeed, which helps equalize the pressure, thanks to the sucking and swallowing motions. That said, if your baby is asleep, don’t wake them up just to feed them. But have that bottle at the ready!

• On most airlines, babies under 2-years-old can travel for free by sitting in your lap. Consider purchasing a seat, so that you can bring your car seat aboard the plane.

• Wear your baby in a sling-type baby carrier. This is not only comforting for the child, it also makes it safer than having your child in your lap without a seatbelt.

• Try and reserve an aisle seat, which makes it easier to walk around, if you need to soothe your child.

• Some parents want to be near the front of the plane for easy boarding and because it’s quieter there. I prefer to be in the back, near the restroom, for easy diaper changes. Also, families tend to sit in the back of the plane and are more understanding than those frequent fliers up front.

• Consider paying the fee to upgrade to premium economy: it will give you and your baby more space to move around.

• Let the airline know that you’re traveling with a baby and ask them to leave the seat next to you empty. If there’s room, airlines will often honor the request.

• And a creative way to help make the flight go more smoothly for the other passengers is to give out mini-care packages filed with earplugs, iTunes gift cards, or scratch off lottery cards. You can also offer to buy in-flight movies (or headsets) for everyone in the immediate area.

Related: Bribes on a Plane: How to Make Nice With Your Fellow Passengers When Your Baby Goes Insane

But as we saw on that Air China flight, it’s a different ballgame if you go after a mom’s child. The only gift you’ll get in that case is a can of whup-ass.

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