A ceiling panel on an American Airlines plane fell on a 1-year-old boy’s head during a flight from Hong Kong International to Dallas/Fort Worth, the mother of the child said Saturday.
Jennifer Zanone detailed the incident in a Facebook post, writing that when American Airlines Flight 126 landed, “an entire ceiling panel, including a tank full of oxygen, fell on my one year old sons head, who was sitting on my lap in seat 35L.”
Zanone said she was “given the run around for 1.5 hours” by American Airlines customer service staff. “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 added.
American Airlines did not deny the incident, but clarified that it was an oxygen canister rather than a tank that struck the boy.
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“American’s primary concern is for the Zanone family and their young child,” a company spokesperson said in a statement to Fortune. “Our customer relations team has spoken with Mrs. Zanone to offer additional support and obtain details of what transpired at Dallas/Fort Worth Saturday. Customers trust us to take care of them and we take that responsibility seriously. Our flight attendants offered to request medical personnel meet the aircraft upon arrival at the gate, but that request was declined by Mrs. Zanone.
“Our Dallas/Fort Worth and Tech Ops teams are also working to gather more information and facts surrounding this unfortunate incident,” the statement continued.
In another post on April 8, Zanone issued an update, saying that her son was medically evaluated and “is fine and acting like his normal self.”
