"Catfight" on a BA flight

On a trip back from LHR to JFK on British Airways, I saw a rather nasty
fight between two women in coach take place. it was close behind my seat and
started with one of the woman's kid kicking the back of the another woman's
seat.

i guessed he kicked it too many times and the woman turns around and starts
yelling at the kid's face. of course the mother of the kid started to lose
it and yell back and everyone can see that this is *escalating* very
quickly.

and then the kid's mom reaches out and smacks the other woman on the face in
the middle of this. now they get up and start pulling each others clothes
and hair. while one is trying to keep her t-shirt on, the other takes
advantage and is holding on to her hair while trying to drag her out into
the aisle, away from the kid.

the befuddling part is that the FAs did not start to do anything until this
point!
*where* were they when this was escalating? it was bizarre to see they
didn't do anything during the obvious screaming and yelling but came after
it was out of control?

was this out of fear of "getting involved" on the part of the FAs?

-Avian