A FLIGHT attendant has caused outrage for allegedly telling a mother on a United Airlines plane that her baby was not allowed to cry for more than five minutes.

Krupa Patel Bala was flying in Business Class from Sydney to San Francisco with her husband and their eight-month-old baby on Tuesday when the incident occurred.

In an open post on her Facebook page, Krupa said: “After about five minutes of the baby crying in the bassinet, the flight attendant manager came over and yelled at my husband it was “absolutely unacceptable” for the baby to cry.”

Krupa claimed that when she told the flight attendant that the request had stressed her out and she had no control over when her baby would cry on the 13-hour flight, the crew member reportedly told the new mother that the noise "really stressed the crew out.”

She said: “I was told it’s part of the rule book that the babies are not allowed to cry for more than 5 minutes.

“When I asked to see the rule book, I was laughed at and told I could see it when we landed because there’s no internet, yet here I am posting this in-flight via wifi that I specifically purchased to post this for $28.99 (£22)."

Krupa asked the crew and fellow passengers if they had been disturbed by the crying, but claims she received nothing but support.

She continued: “More than anything, I tried to explain to [the flight attendant] that I understand that people might get frustrated if the baby cries but there is a more constructive way for her to ask us to manage the situation.

“She could have asked us to walk the baby around, tactfully shared that it was starting to disturb passengers, or really anything with a smile that acknowledged that we weren’t out to make everyone (including us) suffer.

“Her response to that was to tell me that it didn’t matter because it was just unacceptable for the baby to cry and as the parent, I need to control him.”

Following the incident and Krupa’s subsequent post to Facebook, the pilot of the plane visited Business Class with the flight attendant so she could apologise.

But according to the passenger, the cabin crew member refused to admit that she lied about the crew complaining, or about the rule book containing a limit to the amount of time a baby should cry for.

Krupa added: “I was only able to articulate this after I sobbed at my seat for a solid hour. Thank goodness for the other kind souls on this crew that have been so wonderful to us.

"The pilot apologised for her and while I appreciate that, it’s not his apology I’m interested in.

“Parents of newborns have it hard enough already travelling with a baby and we certainly don’t need crew managers piling on when we are doing our best to ensure we’re containing our children and their cries.

“We will never fly United again.”

Following the incident, a United Airlines spokesperson said: “We've been in touch with our customer via social media and United representatives met the family upon arrival to apologise, offer a refund and make clear that the experience she relayed doesn't reflect our commitment to serving our customers, including our youngest customers.

“Young families are welcome on our flights, including in business class. We are continuing to review the incident internally and the flight attendant is being held out of service pending the investigation.”

Last year, United Airlines made global headlines after footage surfaced of Dr David Dao being dragged off an overbooked flight with blood pouring from his mouth.