This is the festive season, the season of goodwill, however that goodwill doesn't extend to Spirit Airlines passengers if they have a crying baby!
It appears the cabin crew of a Spirit flight took exception to a mother nursing her baby onboard their aircraft on Friday 8th December.
Mei Rui, a cancer researcher and pianist from Houston, Texas USA was kicked off the flight due to go to New York, she says because her baby was crying, but the airline says because she failed to comply with safety instructions. “The only 'non-compliance' is that my son was crying for 25 minutes straight after I force-buckled him into the airplane seat.” Ms Rui stated.
In Facebook post Ms Rei wrote “After a three-hour delay due to ‘insufficient de-icing solution’ to thaw the ice on the plane and having to deplane and re-board everyone, I was nursing my exhausted baby (we woke up at 3am for the early flight, as I have a very important recording session in NY this afternoon) as a crew attendant approached me and asked me to stop nursing him and buckle him in his seat.
“Since the plane hadn’t finished re-boarding, and the doors were still open, I politely asked for a couple more minutes so I could finish nursing him. She waved for another flight attendant to come. I explained to them both that giving me a couple more minutes to finish nursing him would prevent him from crying and disturbing the other passengers.
“Seeing that I did not stop breastfeeding him promptly, they went back and at that point must have called the captain. I didn’t want to cause any trouble, so I immediately pulled my son off and forced-buckled him into the seat, which set off uncontrollable crying for the next 25 minutes to the great dismay and earache of everyone on the plane.
“The crew came back (baby had been strapped in the seat for over 20 minutes at that point) and asked us to leave. We said that we haven’t violated any regulations and asked why? They left, and at that point must have called the police.
The family was escorted from the aircraft and greeted by the police in a traumatic experience for them all.
Find out what lies the airline said in its statement -
In a statement, Spirit Airlines said: "Our records indicate a passenger was removed from Flight 712 after refusing to comply with crew instructions several times during taxi to runway and safety briefing. To protect the safety of our guests and crew, FAA regulations and airline policies require all passengers to stay seated and buckled during takeoff and landing."
Although, Spirit Airlines have yet to explain how the aircraft could have possibly been taxiing to the runway, whilst the doors were still open and the aircraft still at the gate. A face corroborated by other passengers on the flight and at the airport.
Maybe the Spirit Airlines cabin crew didn't like babies, or perhaps they had a headache, but off-loading passengers and then lie about why is just so very MeanSpirited. However, perhaps an even bigger issue here is that, if Spirit Airlines records show the aircraft was taxing whilst it was actually still stationary at the gate, it would indicate the airline is falsifying records to the FAA.
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