Southwest Flight Attendant in Baby Slap Flap Says 'I Made a Mistake'

Aug. 19, 2010 — -- The Southwest Airlines flight attendant who took a squalling baby girl from her parents after they slapped her is now saying she was wrong to make it sound as if she took custody of the child.

"I made a mistake," Beverly McCurley said in a story posted by the Dallas Morning News and other local news sites.

Though police and incident reports say McCurley took the 13-month-old girl Monday to the back of the plane after seeing her mother slap the baby with an open hand, McCurley said she only offered to hold the child and help calm her down. She said she did not "take" the girl away from her mother, though controllers on the ground may have gotten that impression when the plane crew, flying from Dallas to Albuquerque, reported the incident.

"I picked the baby up from her, and the baby quit crying," she said. Only when the baby's father asked if he could hold his daughter in the back of the plane did she leave the mother's side, McCurley said, contradicting police reports.

"We thought we could do something good and get them some help," McCurley said.

The baby then fell asleep after the father rocked her, she said.

The baby's mother told police she slapped the child because she was kicking, and she was trying to teach the child that kicking is wrong, according to a police report.

When Albuquerque police officer Dana Baldwin asked the mom about the slapping after the flight, she told her, "I haven't done anything wrong with my child. I popped her when she kicked me and that was it," according to Baldwin's written statement on the report.

The mother, Lee Ann Cid, told Baldwin, the assisting officer at the scene, that she only hit her child lightly on the leg to get her to stop kicking and crying.

"She's done this before when she gets tired and she'll slap me in/toward my face and stuff," Cid said, according to Baldwin's report. "I think it's because she saw my nephew do it. He slapped my sister in the face and I guess she thinks it's OK. And I'm trying to teach her that it's not. And if she continues to kick because she saw him do it, it makes it OK. And the only reason I popped her is so she knows it's not. 'Cause when she's screaming and she can't hear me say no, that's the only way I can get her to stop."

Albuquerque International Sunport police told ABC News Tuesday that McCurley took custody of the baby after the incident.

When the plane landed in Albuquerque, the family was met by police. A Southwest Airlines spokeswoman told ABC News the local authorities were called "out of precaution for the child."

The parents were questioned by police and released to continue to their final destination.