Mum kicked off flight for breastfeeding
A US mother claims she was kicked off a Spirit Airlines flight with her elderly parents and two-year-old son for breastfeeding.
Mei Rui, 34, her son Lukas and her parents were flying from Houston, Texas, to New York City on December 8 when they were escorted off the plane by security.
The cancer researcher and concert pianist said the plane had been sitting on the tarmac for almost three hours because of a de-icing delay, when she began to breastfeed her “exhausted” two-year-old son.
“Every parent with a young child can [imagine], you don’t want to be that parent on the plane,” Rui told the Post. “It would be very embarrassing. I was just trying to avoid that.”
Shortly afterwards, a flight attendant told her to stop and put her son in his seat because they were ready for take off. However Rui claims the plane doors were still open.
“I asked for just a couple more minutes to finish because if he woke up at that point he would have made a lot of noise,” Rui told the publication. “I said, ‘I promise I’ll finish before you close the plane’s door.’”
Rui complied however and “forced” her son into his own seat where he began to cry for 25 minutes.
A flight attendant then asked them to leave the plane but when Rui refused, Spirit made the entire plane disembark then reboard.
Fellow passengers took to social media to defend Rui and call out the airline.
In a video taken at the gate afterwards, staff can be seen laughing and refusing to tell Rui exactly what rules had been broken beyond saying they “did not comply with instructions”.
They dismissed the suggestion that the family had been kicked off because of the toddler’s crying.
A Houston pianist and clinical researcher kicked off @SpiritAirlines flight Friday morning.. she was on her way to conduct cancer research in NYC. Wants answers from airline. Live @iah at 10 #KHOU11 pic.twitter.com/mDPQmC5AOC
— Marcelino Benito (@MarcelinoKHOU) December 10, 2017
Police were called to escort the family away from the gate.
After the incident at George Bush International Airport, Rui says her father was so distraught and stressed he collapsed and had to go to the hospital.
In a statement to DailyMail.com, a spokesman for the airline said: “No one was removed for breastfeeding.
“We were forced to remove a passenger from flight 712 after she refused to comply with crew instructions several times while the doors were closed during taxi and safety briefing.
“To ensure the safety of our guests and crew, FAA regulations and airline policies require all passengers stay seated and buckled during takeoff and landing. We reviewed multiple accounts from the crew and other guests sitting nearby and we apologize for any inconvenience caused by this issue.
“As a courtesy, we’ve issued a full refund to the customer in question.”
They would not comment on Rui's claims that the door was still open when she was breastfeeding.