Video shows a New Jersey family being put through the wringer by a Spirit Airlines flight attendant, who seemingly wanted the family removed from the flight for their toddler not wearing a mask while she was eating.
In the end, though, the family seems to have been vindicated. They were allowed back on the flight and a male flight attendant was reportedly escorted off the plane by Orlando police officers.
Video shows a female flight attendant telling the family that they need to exit the plane because their baby girl, who just turned two, isn’t wearing a mask. The girl is sitting on her seven-month pregnant mother’s lap as she eats some yogurt.
The husband and wife, Ari and Avital Eisenberg, also have with them their special needs son, a seven-year-old who suffers from seizures, according to his mother.
The airline has since claimed the issue was with the adults apparently not following the mask mandate, but the video shows a female flight attendant, reportedly on behalf of a male flight attendant, telling the family that their daughter was not wearing a mask. The Eisenbergs have since said that such a claim from the airline is an outright “lie.”
Here’s how some of the interaction went, as reported by Fox News:
“I told you, noncompliance — you’ll have to get off. I didn’t want to do this,” says a flight attendant who was not the crew member who initially confronted the family.
“We’re wearing masks,” Avital Eisenberg says.
“She not wearing one,” the flight crew member says of the 2-year-old sitting on her mother’s lap eating yogurt. “The pilot wants you off.”
“She just turned two,” the mother says.
After some arguing, the flight attendant leaves and threatens to call the police.
“She just kept repeating that she needs me to deplane and I said I’m not going anywhere, I didn’t do anything wrong,” Avital told Fox. “We tried to explain that we’re doing everything we can with the kids.”
WATCH:
WATCH THIS: A family was just kicked off a @SpiritAirlines flight from Orlando to NY, because their two-year-old child who was eating, wasn’t wearing a mask. The mother is 7 months pregnant, and they have a special needs child. The entire flight was deplaned. pic.twitter.com/dcjLIEbDfA
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) April 5, 2021
More from the @SpiritAirlines flight. pic.twitter.com/PMq2nArVWz
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) April 5, 2021
The airline admitted that the family was allowed back on the plane after it was confirmed they were following the mask mandate. However, Spirit said they were concerned with the adults, not the children, contrary to the video.
“I have no words,” Ari said in response. “Next level craziness. I understand if I gave someone attitude … but there was none of that.”
“We were about to take off. Everything was fine and all of the sudden someone comes over to us and asks us to deplane,” he added. “I kept asking what didn’t we comply with they had nothing to say.”
The mother called the experience “traumatic” for her children.
“My son missed his medication window,” she recalled. “Thank God he didn’t have a seizure. He was sitting there in a soaking wet diaper because I couldn’t change him during the whole thing.”
“My daughter is going crazy from all this it was a terrible terrible experience to go through let alone someone with a special needs child,” Avital added.
According to a report from the Daily Mail, the male flight attendant behind the push to remove the family from the plane was not allowed to return to the flight and was photographed being escorted out by Orlando police officers.
WATCH:
Happy ending for the family kicked off Spirit Airlines! Everyone got back on they kicked the flight attendant off instead 😋 pic.twitter.com/Te2G6W04GZ
— suzy (@suzy__1776) April 5, 2021