A PASSENGER has been praised for his genius technique to stop babies crying on board planes.
For most people, sitting next to a screaming child on a plane is their idea of a terrible time.
However, one man provided relief to both a single mother and a plane full of passengers, by calming down not one, but two crying kids during a recent flight.
The children were said to be obviously afraid of air travel, but the man eased their worries by pretending the flight was a roller coaster.
The kind stranger also got other passengers involved to make the children feel more at ease in their surroundings, which in turn helped other people and the flight attendants during the trip.
On the flight was passenger Derecka Purnell, who Tweeted about her experience on board the aircraft.
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She wrote: "On my flight from Washington DC to Atlanta today there was a mom trying her best with two *screaming* babies who were clearly terrified of planes.
"An older black man in front of me, across from her, leaned over and started to console the kids. He pretended he was on a roller coaster.
"Then he started clapping, then all of us in the back started clapping and followed his lead.
"The babies calmed down and started playing with him."
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The man's reaction to the crying kids was praised by others online, who said that other people should learn from his example.
One wrote: "We need more behaviour like this and less screaming at parents that already have their hands full. Traveling with young children is stressful enough."
Another said: "Doing stuff like this is so great because you can see the parent's stress levels go down."
A third added: "If a kid is *already* crying, peekaboo can't make it worse. And the 1 time peekaboo makes it better you're a national hero!"
However, Derecka argued that airlines should train their flight attendants to be able to deal with crying children, instead of leaving it to parents and other passengers.
She added: "The 'babies shouldn’t cry on planes' debate is so boring to me. Where is the imagination?
"Why not have a flight attendant or someone dedicated to checking in and playing with babies?
"Airlines train people to endlessly sell us stuff and ensure that first class customers are cared for."
However, Sun Online Travel's resident flight attendant has previously revealed that looking after kids is not part of their job.
They said: "We're not a creche and we're not there to look after your children for you – that's still very much your job as a parent.
"I've been handed kids to look after while parents are in the toilet and that's not too bad if you're on your own with a kid, you might need a bit of help.
"But you can't ask us to keep an eye one them while you go to sleep, or even while you have a drink.
"For some reason people think the rules change on planes. They don't, and you need to stay sober enough to keep your kid occupied and safe.
"You also need to keep your kid happy – and if they've got very specific tastes, that's up to you to sort out, not us."
Meanwhile, a flight attendant has revealed the best plane seats for kids – and why parents with babies should never fly at night.
And a former flight attendant has shared where it is best to sit on a plane if you don't like screaming babies.
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