A family of five from Brooklyn were recently taken off a JetBlue flight in Florida last month. Apparently, according to JTA, Tamir Raanan and his wife, Mandy Ifrah, were about to fly home with their three children from Fort Lauderdale when their 1-year-old daughter kicked the seat of the passenger in front of her.
While the parents apologized, the woman was so angry that she “told her she should tie her child’s feet down before switching seats.” The airline says the incident turned ugly when physical threats became involved. This is when they were asked to leave the plane–and told would be refunded for their flight.
Broward County Sheriff’s deputies were called in to escort them off–one deputy said:
“They’re kicking you off the plane — whether it’s right, whether it’s wrong, this is their plane. So they can do whatever they want to do. That doesn’t mean you don’t have any recourse. It doesn’t mean you can’t solve this in another way. You’re not getting home tonight on JetBlue. You guys have to go. You can take it up with JetBlue — make a complaint, sue them. You have all kinds of options.”
JetBlue released a statement, saying, “[a]fter a verbal altercation that included physical threats and profanities against a nearby customer…. The customers refused repeated requests and our crew members deplaned the entire aircraft. Law enforcement escorted them out of the gate area and we provided a refund.”
The family flew back to New York on a different airline after staying in a hotel. You can watch a video of the incident below:
