Inset: Kristy L. Crampton (Sanford Airport Police). Background: Orlando International Airport, Terminal C (OrlandoAviation/YouTube).
A 46-year-old woman was arrested at a Florida airport on Memorial Day for allegedly beating a child because the boy called her “fat” and repeatedly said she “could not fit in her seat” on the airplane.
Kristy L. Crampton was taken into custody on Monday and is currently charged with one count of cruelty toward a child by abuse without great bodily harm, records show.
According to a probable cause affidavit, the incident took place on a flight leaving from Orlando-Sanford International Airport and traveling to Maryland. Before the flight took off, Crampton and several others were voluntarily removed from the flight following a disturbance and law enforcement was called.
Officers with the Sanford Airport Police responded to the scene and made contact with Crampton outside the gate. In an interview with police, Crampton said that the victim had been “very rude and disrespectful during their trip to Disney,” and that behavior continued on the plane. She said an argument ensued and he “began calling her ‘fat’ and ‘Miss Piggy.”” That’s when she decided to take his phone away, causing him to get angry.
“He pushed her arm off of the armrest twice before she responded by smacking him.”
The victim told police that he was angry about his phone being taken and said he called Crampton “fat” and “pushed her arm off of the armrest because she was taking up too much space.
“That’s when she smacked him in the face,” the affidavit says.
Two witnesses on the flight also provided statements to police. The first witness said that they saw Crampton “hitting [the victim] with her fist and then a water bottle.”
“He then said that she ‘slammed’ his head into the airplane window,” the complaint states. “He wrote in his statement that [the boy] did nothing wrong and did not hit [redacted]. He only used his arms to protect his face. [The witness] wrote in his statement that the ‘woman was not correcting the child, she was abusing him, whipping the s— out of the kid.’”
The second witness said she saw the boy calling Crampton “fat” and “saying that she could not fit in her seat.”
“He repeated that statement for about two minutes until [redacted] responded by saying she hates him,” the witness told police. “The [victim] continued to be disrespectful until the [redacted] began hitting him on the head with a water bottle. She then slammed his head into the window.”
Based on the statements, police determined that Crampton’s actions “went beyond typical disciplinary actions” and included “multiple strikes to the head as well as pushing [the victim’s] head into the window.
Crampton appeared in court Tuesday where she was granted bond of $10,000, records show. After posting bond she is prohibited from having any contact with the victim.
The relationship between Crampton and the child was not shared by authorities.
