Airline puts stubborn tot on watch list ...Put off plane after refusing seat-belt, hiding under seat Lee Greenberg The Ottawa Citizen Blame it on the terrible twos, an ill-timed temper tantrum or grandparents who simply refused to put an apoplectic child in his seat. Whatever. The result was that two-year-old Marcello Ferrand was forcibly removed from an airplane over the weekend after he refused to fasten his seat-belt. The incident began as British Airways flight 565 departed the gate of Milan's Linate airport Sunday. As the plane taxied to the runway and cabin crew went through the final steps of their safety demonstration -- ensuring that tabletops and seat-belts were fastened and seats were in the upright position -- they happened upon Marcello. The boy, travelling back home to London from a family vacation with his grandparents, Mariella DeNatale, 70, and Peter Van Schalwyk, 64, refused to put on his seat-belt. "Three cabin staff crowded round him," Mr. Van Schalwyk told the London Evening Standard. "They were quite aggressive. When one appeared with a special child seat-belt, Marcello took fright and hid under the seat." Officials from British Airways said they tried acting reasonably with the grandparents, even offering to help put the child in his seat. But nothing worked. "It's European law that you need to wear your seat-belt during takeoff, landing and when the seat-belt signs are on. It's actually a legal requirement," said British Airways spokeswoman Karen Franklin. "So the cabin crew pointed this out three or four times to the adult passenger. They said 'you know, you need to put your seat-belt on otherwise the captain is unable to take off.'" Finally, the captain left the cockpit and made a last-ditch attempt to get Marcello strapped in. It didn't worked. The plane was forced to taxi back to the airport and the trio was escorted off the plane by Italian police. They say they were forced to buy tickets on another airline, at a cost of $700, the Evening Standard said. Afterwards, Marcello's grandmother said the cabin crew had overreacted and had been responsible for scaring the child in the first place, the newspaper reported. "The police came aboard, checked our passports and then took us to a waiting car," said Ms. DeNatale, a former fashion editor for Vogue magazine in Italy. "I have flown all over the world and never had an experience like this. I felt like a Third World citizen." British Airways officials countered that they carry more than 500,000 children every year, all of whom wear their seat-belts. "It's not been a problem," said Ms. Franklin, who nevertheless admitted she sympathized with Marcello's grandparents. "I think most mothers and fathers realize that a child doesn't like to be strapped in anywhere," Ms. DeNatale told the Evening Standard. In 2001, an 83-year-old woman was charged with assault after allegedly assaulting two crew members on a flight from Toronto to Manchester. But Ms. Franklin was reluctant to label Marcello's case as air rage. "I don't think it could be qualified as seriously as that," said Ms. Franklin. Although no charges were laid, Marcello and his grandparents will have a permanent record of sorts. British Airlines will allow them to fly aboard their planes in the future, but with a zero tolerance policy on seat-belts. Just in case, said Ms. Franklin, their names will be flagged in the airline's computer. "Our cabin crew and check-in staff would be briefed beforehand," she said. Ms. DeNatale said that wouldn't be a problem: "We were treated like rubbish," she told the Evening Standard. "It was a very bad experience. I will never buy another ticket with BA." *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Site of the Week: http://www.tha.gov.tt/ TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************