Fussy Toddler Kicked Off Alaska Airlines Flight
A cranky 3-year-old was kicked off an Alaska Airlines flight at Sea-Tac Airport when he refused to keep his seatbelt on.
Daniel Yanchuck was sitting with his father Mark on a red-eye flight bound for Miami when he started to fuss.
“He got a little bit cranky, started screaming, maybe yelling a little bit, crying,” Yanchuck told msnbc.com.
He called his wife, who was sitting in first class with their one-year-old son, to come back and help. Flight attendants tried to assist and moved the boy’s mother back to sit with her 3-year-old.
"When I came, he was just sitting with his seat belt fastened and after two or three minutes I managed to calm him down," she explained.
But by then the plane was already returning to the gate. Alaska Airlines says it was a matter of safety and the pilot would rather deal with it on the ground than in mid-flight.
“I think they overreacted. I know you get kicked off planes for dangerous situations like not wearing a seat belt or running around or something dangerous. But I didn’t see the situation as being dangerous at all,” Mark Yanchuk said.
In recent months, airlines have made it increasingly difficult for families to travel together. Some have stopped letting parents with small children board early, and others are charging new fees that may force families to pay extra in order to sit together.
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