I'm not saying I'm an expert parent, and does my disability being in the same spectrum as one of the 2 kids give my argument no merit? I have a good feeling of what the other passengers on the plane went through, as my brother is about as close to the lower achieving autism as you can get while still being a functional member of society, a lot of times I will actually deny he's my brother in public because of his actions (imagine being around someone who barks constantly, welcome to my world). Its impossible to deal with people with autism sometimes, the mother should have anticipated that there would be problems and planned accordingly, which from the sounds of it she did not.