This is the moment two women locked a crying toddler in a plane toilet to ‘parent’ her after irate passengers reportedly stuffed tissues in their ears to silence the child’s screams.
Footage shows the little girl crying and screaming to be let out of the small toilet stall during the Juneyao Airlines flight from Guiyang to Shanghai on August 24 as women look on.
The toddler reportedly cried incessantly throughout the flight. People on board said she was so loud that some passengers put tissues in their ears to block out the sound and moved to the back of the plane.
Passengers complained that the girl’s grandparents had no idea how to stop her crying. Attempts to distract her with a mobile phone were unsuccessful.
One of the two women, Gou Tingting, posted a video of herself carrying the toddler to the toilet on Chinese social media. She wrote in a comment justifying her actions: “I just wanted to raise the child and let everyone have a good night’s sleep.”
Footage shows the little girl crying and screaming in the small cubicle as the women watch
According to reports, the toddler cried incessantly during the flight and people on board said she was so noisy that some passengers put tissues in their ears to block out the sound.
Passengers complained that the little girl’s grandparents seemed to have no idea how to stop her crying and that attempts to distract her with a cell phone proved unsuccessful.
Gou added that some passengers tried to move to empty seats further away to escape the child’s screams.
The girl’s grandmother is said to have given Gou and the other woman permission to intervene and take the toddler away from her grandmother.
Once in the toilet, the girl continued to cry and scream for her grandmother, but eventually stopped after the women told her she would not see her grandmother until she stopped crying.
The girl was also told that she was not allowed to leave the toilet until she was silent for three minutes.
According to reports, the girl was silent for the remaining two hours of the flight.
When the plane landed, police were apparently present, but reportedly they only lectured the grandmother about her role in the incident. They said nothing to the two women who locked the child in the plane’s toilet.
According to Chinese media, the girl is one year old, but this has not been confirmed by authorities.
According to police, the grandmother, who brought the girl to Shanghai to reunite her with her father, is grateful for the intervention of Gou and the other woman, as the toddler did not respond to other attempts to stop her from crying.
The video of the incident sparked an online debate about the treatment of children in public spaces, with many people criticising the women’s behaviour.
Juneyao Airlines customer service said in a statement that they were aware of the incident: “We have also received the report and are investigating it internally.
One of the two women, Gou Tingting, posted a video of herself carrying the toddler to the toilet on Chinese social media. She wrote in a comment to justify her actions: ‘I just wanted to raise the child and give everyone a good night’
The women kept the child locked in the toilet cubicle until she stopped crying
‘The fact that a stranger takes a child is also an individual decision and we do not pass judgment on that.
‘The flight attendant can’t be in the cabin all the time. If the child is crying, we can certainly try to remind the caregivers to do their best to calm the child, but if the child keeps crying, there’s not much the flight attendant can do.
‘And if during the period when the flight attendant is not there, someone decides to take the child as an individual, then we accept that this is an emergency situation.
“If the flight attendant had noticed, they would have helped the parent or guardian resolve the matter. But the child’s family could have also asked strangers or reported it to the police.”
Police confirmed that they were made aware of the incident through online comments and that they were transferring the matter to the relevant departments.