A Toronto Blue Jays pitcher is crying foul at an airline after his pregnant wife was allegedly told to clean up after her daughter during a flight.
Anthony Bass's tweet on April 16 about the incident unknowingly kicked up a maelstrom of discussion around passenger etiquette when travelling — particularly when flying.
"The flight attendant @united just made my 22 week pregnant wife traveling with a 5 year old and 2 year old get on her hands and knees to pick up the popcorn mess by my youngest daughter. Are you kidding me?!?!" he wrote.
The tweet garnered more than 42,000 comments and was viewed more than 69 million times.
Responses from the public were mixed, but at least one Canadian air passenger rights advocate thinks Bass and his family aren't in the wrong.
"I don't think she should have picked it up," said Gabor Lukacs, president of Air Passenger Rights, of the popcorn the airline provided.
"It's really not the passenger's job," he added. "Because … the recommendations are that you have your seatbelt fastened all the time unless you're going to the bathroom. That's why they have a cleaning crew between flights to clean up the mess."
Lukacs notes that flight attendants have been trained to move through turbulence, but passengers are not. And while it's not the responsibility of flight attendants to clean the aircraft, he believes that they're the best trained and equipped to handle issues in a mid-flight situation.
Those that disagree with Lukacs and Bass believe the United Airlines flight attendant should be commended.
"The fact that the flight attendant had the guts to make the passenger clean up their own MESS kinda makes me wanna fly United more," responded one person on Twitter.
Bass responded to criticism by saying the "cleaning crew they hire" should clean up after his children.
United Airlines says it's looking into the situation.
