A Virgin Blue flight attendant has now been fired for stowing a 17 month old infant in the overhead compartment.

Little Riley was playing peek-a-boo with his dad when the  flight attendant decided to join in the fun. He scooped Riley up and hid him in the overhead bin. In the middle of all the laughter from the other passengers, Riley’s mom Natalie Williamson looked up in horror and saw that her son was locked in the overhead.  Natalie told Sunday’s Herald Sun, “I stood up and there were people laughing and then I said ‘Get my son out of there now.’”

Since then, Virgin Blue has fired the attendant and mother Natalie claimed that she has taken her son to various doctors for anxiety and withdrawal symptoms. “He won’t leave my sight now. He sleeps with me. If I’m not in the same room as him, he will scream and yell ‘Mum, mum, mum,’” she said.

While this may have been a joke gone bad, do you think that this is all a slight overreaction? Do you think the attendant deserves to get fired?

Also, since the event, Riley’s dad has been “estranged”. Can his anxiety and the mom’s reaction be due to this new development?