American Airlines is under fire from the mother of a toddler conked by an oxygen tank that fell out of the ceiling when the flight from Hong Kong landed in Texas. She said the airline didn’t exactly leap into action until there was a complaint on social media.
According to Jennifer Zanone, her one-year-old son was sitting on her lap and upon landing in Fort Worth a falling ceiling panel and the oxygen tank hit her son.
Although the pilot and a flight attendant showed concern, Zanone said, she was directed to see a gate agent to document the incident, but nobody came to the gate.
“We stood there waiting for an agent and our stroller until the captain himself walked off the flight and apologized to us,” she said in a Facebook post, adding that after leaving the gate area she was forced to wait for almost two more hours to report the incident at a customer service area, again to no avail.
“While the apologies were appreciated, documentation of the incident would have been preferred as a piece of the plane fell directly on my child’s head and that is not ok. Fly American Airlines with extreme caution,” she said.
American Airlines responded to the complaint, saying that Zanone had refused medical assistance when a flight attendant offered to call medical personnel, The International Business Times reported.
The mother said she declined medical assistance due to her frustration.
“We were offered medical assistance immediately following the incident and we did decline because I didn’t know what the medic could do on site with a jet-lagged, exhausted child so I chose to monitor himself until I could get him back to his own doctor,” she said
Zanone added that the only response she had received from the airline was via Twitter and this was prompted by her complaints posted to social media.
In a statement, American Airlines said its primary concern was for the Zanone family. “Our customer relations team has spoken with Mrs. Zanone to offer additional support and obtain details of what transpired,” the statement read, according to the Star-Telegram.
“Customers trust us to take care of them and we take that responsibility seriously.”
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