outside the plane, parents pose with daughter
A family was reprimanded by an airline for leaving their toddler on their flight.
Brian and Brittany Schear of Huntington Beach, California were forced off their Delta flight and threatened with jail time and the removal of their children from custody after refuse to give up their seats on an overbooked flight.
Brian and Brittany Schear were told they would be “put in jail” if they didn’t take their toddler out of the seat they had paid for.
The Schear family were on their way home from Kahului Airport in Maui, Hawaii, with their two toddlers in April 2017 when they had a terrible experience aboard their Delta flight.
RELATED: A man poured soda on an airline passenger’s “smelly” feet after she kept putting them under his seat
Brian told NBC News that he and his wife initially bought a ticket for their 18-year-old son on the red-eye flight, but decided to send him home early so that their 2-year-old could have a seat on the plane. Before boarding their flight, Brian made sure to explain the situation to the ticket agent.
The family boarded their flight without any issues, but once on the plane, Brian was told by a Delta employee that the 2-year-old had to give up his seat for the other passengers on the reserve list. When they refused, Brian and Brittany were threatened with jail time.
The entire incident was captured by Brittany, who filmed the Delta workers telling Brian that if he and his family disobeyed, they would all be killed. be kicked off the plane. In the video, Brian can be heard telling the airline employee, who is not on camera, that they can “get me off the plane”.
“So this is a federal felony. You and your wife could be in jail and your kids will be in foster care,” the airline employee is heard telling the family. “We’re going to be in jail and what will my children be?” Brian responded.
Story continues
The airline employee confirmed their earlier statement, claiming that if the family did not comply, there would be serious consequences.
At that point, Brian offered another solution. He suggested his wife could hold one of the toddlers during takeoff and then put their 1-year-old in the car seat, but was told that federal rules require children under 2 to sit on a parent’s lap during the flight to stay.
Photo: Bricolage/Shutterstock
However, This is reported by the Federal Aviation Administrationthey strongly recommend that infants sit in car seats on flights, not on their parents’ laps.
The family was kicked off their flight and were not refunded for their tickets.
Brian told CBS News Los Angeles that he and his family were told to leave the plane if they refused to cooperate, and were not even compensated.
When Brian asked what to do once they got off the flight, the Delta crew member couldn’t help. “That’s not up to me,” they replied, before later adding, “At this point, you’re on your own.”
“We never thought it would get to the point where they would take us all off the flight,” Brian told CBS Los Angeles. “When we got off the plane, there were four or five passengers waiting for our seat. The bottom line is that they oversold the flight.”
Speaking to NBC News, Brittany said she felt very frustrated that the airline employee threatened her and her husband with jail time and that their children were being placed in foster care.
“I’m not a confrontational person… and if you’re a mom and you have your 1-year-old and your 2-year-old and they’re threatening to take your kids away from you, I mean if that’s possible or that, you know, against the law, it made my heart pound,” she said.
Photo: Song_about_summer/Shutterstock
RELATED: Video of a child ‘running wild’ on an 8-hour flight sparks online outrage
Delta Airlines eventually released a statement publicly apologizing to the family for the inconvenience. “We are sorry for the unfortunate experience our customers have had with Delta, and we have reached out to them to refund their travel and provide additional compensation,” the company said.
“Delta’s goal is to always work with customers to find solutions to their travel problems. In this case, we didn’t succeed and we apologise.”
It can be incredibly frustrating when large companies, like Delta, engage in behavior that makes it seem like they don’t care about their customers, but rather how much money they can make from consumers. Fortunately, the family was able to stay the night in a hotel and board another flight in the morning.
Nia Tipton is a Chicago-based entertainment, news and lifestyle writer whose work delves into contemporary issues and experiences.
This article originally appeared on YourTango
