Fort Lauderdale, FL – A family of five from Brooklyn was sent off a JetBlue flight in Florida, with the reason in dispute.
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Tamir Raanan and his wife, Mandy Ifrah, were ready to fly home with their three children from Fort Lauderdale last month when their 1-year-old daughter kicked the seat of the passenger in front of her.
Ifrah told the New York Daily News that she apologized to the woman and then set about calming her child. She also told other news outlets and airport security that the woman told her she should tie her child’s feet down before switching seats.
The airline asserted that after “a verbal altercation that included physical threats,” the family was asked to deplane.
A video of the encounter with airline security taken on Raanan’s cellphone shows Ifrah speaking to her husband in Hebrew at one point. The family is Jewish and the couple are expatriate Israelis.
The airplane returned to the gate and the family was asked to leave the plane. A member of the JetBlue staff told the couple that they would receive a refund for the flight.
Broward County Sheriff’s deputies were called in to deal with the situation, as the family continued to stand at the gate and complain about being removed from the flight.
“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,” a deputy said. “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.”
David Templer, an attorney for the family, told the Washington Post that the incident was a “non-event” and did not require removing the family.
The family stayed in a hotel overnight after buying extra diapers, wipes and children’s clothes. They flew back to New York on a different airline, discovering upon arrival that their luggage had been sent back to Florida. They had to pay to have it returned to them, according to reports.
In my opinion, they deserved it. People need to behave on a plane!
Jet Blue probably thought they were Muslim.
In my opinion, this matter escalated, because of the confrontational style of both parents; one cannot tolerate such behavior on a flight, and it is better that they were removed, while the flight was still on the ground. The parents were lucky that they were not arrested. Of course, the one year old is blameless; it was the parents verbal abuse, which resulted in their being kicked off.
One time,i was on a flight from San Francisco to Chicago, and at least one or possibly two children kept repeatedly kicking my seat. I had to ask the parents several times, to have them control their kids; they also had an attitude, towards my request. It is very unpleasant to have to sit on a flight, and to have either a child, or an adult either kick your seat, or stretch their legs under your seat.
If the staff on a flight is uncomfortable with any person, they don’t want to chance it in the air. They will deplane that person. We know the family is fine, but if the steward is not comfortable, they will take you off. They are talking loud and interupting the person they are talking to. It’s really not a great situation, but you have to realize that you cannot be loud and pushy on a flight.
To #9 - Look, don’t show sympathy for this couple, because they are Israelis. I don’t care if they were goyim. If they want to act, in a loud, rude, and confrontational manner on a flight, then they deserve to get kicked off, period!