Passenger Trapped on Delayed Flight with Crying Baby Sparks Debate Over Controversial Suggestion

A crying baby on a plane is one thing, but pile on broken air conditioning and departure delays and things can get a little tense. 

On Saturday, June 7, one traveler, Pat McAuliffe, a contributor at Barstool Sports, took his grievances to X (formerly Twitter) and shared a video of himself on a Delta Airlines flight with a crying baby in the background. 

“If your child is screaming on a flight (that’s late with no AC and hasn’t taken off yet @Delta) show it a f—— phone,” McAuliffe captioned the video, which has amassed over 15 million views. “Brain rot the baby on TikTok until it’s quiet. Is that too much to ask?”

In a follow-up video posted about an hour and a half later, the baby can still be heard crying. “I do feel bad for the parents but at some point you gotta try something new,” McAuliffe wrote. “Walk his a– up and down the aisle, distract him, do something. It’s still going on. Simply praying it’ll stop is not acceptable.” 

In a third post, shared about 45 minutes later, he added, “At what point does this become a medical emergency? It’s been two hours. Also why are these people not at least talking to their kid to soothe him? STAND UP AND WALK HIM AROUND.”

Commenters under each post were split on whether McAuliffe’s complaints — and suggestions — were valid. Some denounced him, expressing sympathy for the uncomfortable child.

“Sounds like you’re crying louder than the baby,” jabbed one commenter. Another added, “F—— p—- it’s just a baby crying sometimes babies cry.”

One X user even suggested that McAuliffe purchase “noise-canceling headphones,” so that “babies crying will be a thing of the past.” To this, McAuliffe shot back, “Hey idiot. When the baby is four feet from your face and screaming that doesn’t matter.”

While there were quite a few heated responses towards McAuliffe, others took his side, reprimanding the parents from afar for not trying additional methods to calm their child. 

“Screaming for 2 hours is on the parents. My child would NOT just be crying for 2 hours,” one person wrote. Another added, “Yep, unbearable. Mommy won’t get off her a-– to walk the baby and if there is a dad, he’d be sound asleep.”

It’s unclear whether the child continued crying or the parents found a way to soothe them; however, it seems McAuliffe stayed out of the situation. Of course, this isn’t the first time a crying baby has frustrated passengers beyond their breaking point on a crowded plane. 

Back in 2023, a man became irate with a flight attendant on a Southwest Airlines flight, yelling for them to do something about a baby that had been crying for about 40 minutes. 

“We are in a f—— tin can with a baby in a godd— echo chamber and you want to talk to me about being f—— okay,” he said in the once-viral video. The flight attendant reminded the man that he was now also “yelling.”

“So is the baby,” the passenger responded. “Did that motherf—– pay extra to yell?”

At the time, a representative for Southwest declined to provide additional details of the situation to PEOPLE, but shared a statement, which read, “We commend our crew for exhibiting outstanding professionalism while handling a challenging situation, and we offer our apologies to the other customers onboard who had to experience such unacceptable behavior.”