Another airline incident has gone viral. This time a California family says Delta Air Lines forced them off a plane and threatened jail time after they said they would not give up one of their seats.
The April 23 incident is the latest in a series of episodes involving airline passenger and employee conflicts.
In this most recent one to come to light, Brian and Brittany Schear told KABC-TV in Los Angeles they were returning from Hawaii with their two toddlers. They wanted to put one child in a seat they had purchased for their 18-year-old son, who flew home on an earlier flight.
In video recorded of the incident, someone off-camera tells Brian Schear, “So their policy is if you’re not gonna abide, you’re gonna have to get off the plane.”
Schear responds, “Then they can remove me off the plane.”
“You and your whole family?” the agent asked.
“Yeah, that’s fine,” he said.
“So, then, it’s going to be a federal offense,” another agent quickly chimed in, “and then you and your wife will be in jail and your kids will be put in…”
“We’re going to be in jail and my kids are going to be what?” Schear interrupted.
“It’s a federal offense if you don’t abide by it,” she said.
“I bought that seat,” Schear said.
“I understand. It’s for Mason, and Mason’s not here,” the official responded.
Later in the video, an airline official tells Brian Schear that the Federal Aviation Administration requires that his two-year-old son sit in an adult’s lap and is not allowed to have his own seat.
“With him being two, he cannot sit in a car seat,” an airline official tells Brian. “He has to sit here in your arms the whole time.”
“He rode in a car seat the whole way out here on a Delta flight,” Schear said.
“Then… that’s unfortunate… I don’t know what to tell you. I’m just trying to do the best I can now,” the airline official responded.
The Associated Press reports that the Federal Aviation Administration “strongly urges” that infants fly in a car seat, however, it allows a parent to hold a child under two in a lap.
The AP goes on to say that on Delta’s website, the airline recommends that parents purchase a seat for children under two and place the child in a child-safety seat that is approved.
Delta issued an apology Thursday:
“We are sorry for the unfortunate experience our customers had with Delta, and we’ve reached out to them to refund their travel and provide additional compensation,” the statement read. Delta went on to state that the company wants to work with patrons to fix travel problems and “that did not happen in this case and we apologize.”
