A father is calling for federal legislation to curb cabin heating after a traumatic incident on a United Airlines flight involving his toddler. While I do not dismiss his point, it seems to me that his outrage is at least partially misplaced by his refusal to simply walk off the hot plane with his child.

Dad Calls For Federal Regulation After Warm Cabin Incident On United Airlines

One Mile At A Time notes an interesting incident that occurred on June 29, 2025. A family was flying from Chicago (ORD) to Portland (PWM) on a United Express regional jet. It was a hot day in Chicago, and the auxiliary power unit (APU) on the aircraft was either turned off or not working. The father shares his version of events here:

We settled in, and the plane began to fill with other passengers. As it did, so did the cabin temperature. Outside in Chicago it was approximately 90°F, with a heat index of 95. Factor in the blacktop tarmac and a low-riding regional plane, and we turned into an oven.

My Garmin watch began to alert me to a rising heart rate. I suddenly became acutely aware of how incredibly hot it had become inside the cabin. I looked at the time—it had been 30 minutes since we boarded, with no sign of takeoff. I opened all three of our air vents and took off my son’s outer layers. If I’m roasting, he definitely is.

His main way of communicating with us is through a series of gestures that scientists are still working to decipher—early human grunts and whistle cries that can and will wake the ancestors. My son started grunting. I felt his little legs—they were hot to the touch. A moment later, a flight attendant spoke over the loudspeaker:

“Please, if everyone could open the air vents to try and circulate the air, it might make all of us a little less miserable. I apologize—I don’t have more information. I’m just a flight attendant and they don’t tell us anything.”

Not a great sign of things to come.

Opening all the vents seemed to have a negative effect. The A/C wasn’t on, and all it did was circulate increasingly hot air. I started using water from our dwindling supply, placing drops around my son and fanning him. He got more fussy, more squirmy. I pushed the call button. A few moments later, a flight attendant came over.

I said:

“I’m beginning to seriously worry about my son’s health. He’s only 15 months and can’t regulate his body temperature. We need off the plane, or the A/C needs to start cooling his body down.”

She replied:

“I’ve had other passengers tell me they’re starting to get lightheaded. I’ll go talk to the captain.”

I looked at the clock—over 45 minutes since boarding.

Another five minutes passed. A different flight attendant came by and dropped off a bag of ice for my child and immediately walked away. We were left speechless. I placed the bag of ice on my son’s back—not directly on skin; that’s dangerous. Reminder: he’s a toddler and has no clue why he’s melting or why I’m now trying to freeze his back.

At this point, I got my phone out while my wife attended to our son. I began composing a social media post saying I was boiling alive inside a United plane in Chicago.

As I was finishing it, the captain suddenly said:

“Prepare for takeoff.”

Cold air finally started pouring in as the engines fired up and we left the ground. By the Gods, my son began to cool down—no thanks to anyone at United.

Throughout this entire experience, we were never offered water or anything cool to drink. We were never given an explanation as to why we sat for so long, or why it was okay for United to treat us like a garbage barge.

Let me be clear: my wife is a physician. If it weren’t for her expertise, my son might not be as healthy as he is today. She and I worked together to cool him down. It took both of us.

United ignored the words of a physician and a parent. They endangered his life—and the lives of everyone else on that flight.

The father rejected compensation from United and instead is calling for federal regulation to regulate temperatures onboard commercial airplanes:

This is bigger than just my family. I will never fly United again. Many folks don’t have that luxury—and maybe I won’t either someday.

But what I am asking for is federal oversight.

I’m asking that United—a mega-corporation that has received massive public assistance through bailouts and subsidies—be held accountable.

I’m calling for:

• Federal regulations on cabin temperature
• Time limits on tarmac idling based on plane type and ventilation capability

My son and my family were held hostage inside a plane—not by terrorists, but by corporate oligarchs whose only concern is the almighty dollar.

We need to restore the balance of power.
These companies need to remember they are nothing without us.

The family also appeared on CBS Chicago to tell their story:

My Thoughts

I’m sympathetic to the call for federal regulations on cabin temperature, as we see in Canada. There is a danger of overheating in a hot cabin and passengers should not be kept miserable because the airline defers maintenance on its APU. It’s no surprise that an airplane full of people would become a sauna on a stifling hot day in Chicago.

Saying that, “United tried to cook my toddler” (as if there was an intent to do so) is overdramatic…it undermines the reasonable point that cabin temperatures can become dangerously warm. Here, this incident occurred while the aircraft was still parked at the gate. If the aircraft was really too hot, the father could have taken his toddler off instead of composing an angry social media post onboard.

But what would this federal regulation look like? As One Mile At A Time correctly asks, “How would this work logistically? There would be someone with a temperature gun to determine how hot the cabin is?”

And if flights had to be cancelled immediately if the APU was broken, would that do more harm than good? Must a plane be pulled out of service for maintenance issues like this?

CONCLUSION

I don’t dismiss that it’s poor customer service and a potential safety hazard to board a plane with a broken APU on a hot summer day. I’m also not opposed to federal regulations or standards to address this if airlines are unwilling to handle the matter themselves. But I do sincerely question whether why the father simply did not take his son off the plane if there was true concern over the safety of the child.