Airlines Continue To Kick Toddlers Off Planes For Non-compliance With Mask Mandates

Well, it happened again. An airline kicked a family off of a flight because the toddler wouldn’t comply with mask-wearing requirements. And we’ve been seeing a lot of this. Toddlers, who don’t often comply with anything, are naturally feeling anxious about strapping something uncomfortable and unnatural to their face for extended periods of time. But the travel czars will make no exceptions. Except that everyone on the packed planes can take their masks off to eat and drink throughout the flight.

But this latest one was particularly interesting because United Airlines not only kicked the family off of the plane despite the father all but smothering the girl with a face covering, but also refused to return their carseat and luggage, and then banned the Silver Premier members from the airline for life.

@realDailyWire @benshapiro @andrewklavan @TuckerCarlson @michaeljknowles @DLoesch @scrowder @Timcast @joerogan @theblaze @newsmax#unitedairlines disgraces itself after kicking off a family and not letting them take the car seat for the baby so they can go home. pic.twitter.com/bFlFi7ydPd

— V. James Naimo (@NaimoJames) December 12, 2020

Part 2#unitedairlines pic.twitter.com/HHySIpJf1X

— V. James Naimo (@NaimoJames) December 12, 2020

In the video, the parents are polite and try to put a mask on the toddler. Ultimately, the father ends up holding the two-year-old in his lap and forcing a covering over her face while she struggles. An airline employee instructs the family to gather their belongings and exit the plane, accusing them of “non-compliance” while the father insists that they are complying by “literally holding this over my daughter’s face.”

Once the family exits the plane, the employees inform them that they are banned for life from flying on the airline because of the non-compliance of their two-year-old, and they are informed that their bags and car seat would still be sent to New York, their final destination. This, of course, left the family stranded in the airport with no way to drive their child home and none of their essential items and clothes that had been packed in their bags.

The video quickly went viral and people weighed in.

Absolutely terrible, @united. Toddlers shouldn’t be forced to wear masks. For one thing medical experts have made it clear that children that young do not acquire or pass on the virus to the same extent that adults do. Masking toddlers is both impractical & potentially hazardous. https://t.co/0nGEl53lA0

— Rita Panahi (@RitaPanahi) December 12, 2020

This video from @elizfulop is truly disgusting.

This is a 2 year old. Her parents are nothing but polite to the @united airlines staff. The father is even holding the mask over the child’s face after she would not wear it.

They get removed from the flight. And banned. https://t.co/dC9nLmwn23

— Miss Jo (@therealmissjo) December 12, 2020

@united kicks a 2 year old off for not wearing a mask? stupid.. No one @United must have children. Have you ever tried to get a toddler to eat, wear shoes, or brush their teeth? and you expect them to wear a mask? Idiots… https://t.co/gvCQKedZus

— KYRN (@Fun_E_Bonez) December 12, 2020

No matter where you stand on the mask issue, this is insane. 1)All of the experts have always said that masks on babies and toddlers can be dangerous 2)If they want to travel during a pandemic, who cares? The airlines are open… 3)They ended up complying.
Shame on you, @united https://t.co/HVR7NGHXhp

— Alex (@LexRose5) December 12, 2020

Libs: 13 year old violent kid not following police orders while yelling at them “I have a gun!” = HE DIDN’T DO ANYTHING WRONG!!!

Also Libs: 2 year old baby won’t wear a mask and both get kicked off a plane: THAT’S WHAT A PARENT DOES!!! I’D FORCE MY CHILD TO CARE ABOUT OTHERS!!! https://t.co/4DSphQfdwU

— Raney “that’s been debunked” Nickel 🇺🇲 (@Raney__Nickel) September 24, 2020

And they’re in line to get a bail out from our tax dollars.

This is not just United. I’ve witnessed this exact same thing happen at least half a dozen times over the past few months on other airlines, especially American.

The airlines hate their customers. They’ve ruined flying https://t.co/IAlEhIgH73

— President-Elect Karlyn Borysenko (@DrKarlynB) December 12, 2020

She’s two.

And if you are older than two you should be furious about this. @united gets to stay open and restaurants have to close. https://t.co/OLD1JKuIab

— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) December 12, 2020

People quickly landed on a few significant details about the situation that are perhaps the most infuriating.

1. The airlines have received a significant amount of taxpayer bailout money to remain open and serve the American people.
2. While massive and unreasonable airlines get bailout money, countless restaurants and small businesses are going bankrupt all around the country as government mandates make it impossible to comply with COVID regulations despite their best efforts.

And this kind of ridiculous response from federally bailed out airlines is by no means an isolated incident.

Back in August, Chaya Bruck and her six children were kicked off of a flight when her 2 year old “would not cooperate and wear a mask.” When asked to exit the plane with her 6 children, Bruck refused. Ultimately, they forced the entire JetBlue flight to deplane so they could kick the woman and her 2 year old off of the flight.

This is insane. Who the hell actually believes that this makes us safe? NYC Mom and Six Children Kicked Off Flight After 2-Year-Old Refused to Wear Mask https://t.co/hTPjDPa8ZC

— Matt Kibbe (@mkibbe) August 21, 2020

Around the same time, Alyssa Sadler, flying alone with an autistic 3 year old son and an infant, were kicked off of their Southwest flight because her autistic son would not wear a mask due to his extreme sensory sensitivity. Interestingly, the organization Autism Speaks has announced its position that “for some people on the autism spectrum, wearing a mask is not possible.” According to NBC, “Sadler, who was wearing a mask, said she also had a note from his doctor explaining his condition, but it didn’t matter to staff.” The plane had already pushed back from the gate, but it was turned around and taxied back and luckily, they retrieved their bags for them.

In September, Jodi Degyansky from Chicago said her 2-year-old son was without a mask while eating snacks on the plane before it took off, which is perfectly acceptable for adults to do, per the airline.

“They came over maybe four or five times and asked him to pull up his mask, will he wear his mask the duration of the flight, are you confident he’ll wear his mask? Which I absolutely was. It was definitely a struggle in the moment because he did have food in front of him, so at two years of age he was a little more distracted with the food than wanting to pull the mask up over his face.”

Although they were kicked off of their Southwest Airlines flight, at least in this case the family was able to collect their checked luggage and pay $600 for a different flight home.

Around the same time, Tiffani Jett, whose husband is an infectious disease doctor, said that she wasn’t able to get her 2-year-old daughter to cooperate with wearing a face mask on board. She and her daughter were ultimately kicked off of her Southwest Airlines flight.

“Two-year-olds don’t understand a lot and my daughter knows that I have to wear a mask. She knows daddy wears a mask, but to put a mask on her when she still likes to suck her thumb, it’s challenging.”

“I take that embarrassing, humiliating walk down the concourse to go get my bags and see the passengers all sitting out and they are apologizing. Like they are mouthing, ‘I’m sorry,’ as I’m walking by.”

Just days later, Rachel Davis was kicked off of an American Airlines flight when her 2 year old son wouldn’t wear a mask. She posted on Instagram. about the ordeal:

“I tried repeatedly, begged him, bribed him, pleaded with him, did everything I could while he was screaming and crying as I tried to hold him and put the mask on, feeling my absolute lowest of lows as a mother.”

The entire flight was forced to deplane in order to kick this mom and her 2 year old son off of the plane. Fellow passenger Taylor Cournoyer said of the incident,

“It was very cold and cruel. This wasn’t an issue of a grown adult not complying out of spite because they don’t agree with masks — this was a child. And it was not a bad, irresponsible mom either — she was crying and trying to keep the mask on and asking the flight attendants for help and advice on what to do.”

In a video Cournoyer took, the mother can be heard crying and pleading, saying,

“I don’t know what you want me to do to keep the mask on him. What do you want me to do — duct tape his face? He’s 2 years old, he doesn’t get it!”

In the same video by the fellow passenger, Cournoyer, the pilot can be heard telling the entire plane (who had been deplaned and reboarded),

“I hate to talk like this but once we get going if there are any problems, if you guys give them any problems at all about the decisions that I have made we will turn the flight around and we will come back.”

Cournoyer says this pilot announcement was in response to the many passengers who tried to speak up about how they had “really just made [them] deplane so that they could remove a mother and a baby.”

Local mom says she was kicked off an American Airlines flight because her toddler wouldn’t wear a mask https://t.co/Wo8bgjjsz2

— Boston 25 News (@boston25) September 22, 2020

Again, just days later, Kelly Breiterman and her autistic daughter Ava had a traumatic experience on a Southwest flight.

“I was trying to get her to put her mask back on, she wouldn’t. So the manager came back in and said, ‘sorry mam’am, we’re going to have to deboard you, because this is policy and she wasn’t wearing a mask.'”

Mother and 5-year-old with autism kicked off Southwest flight for not wearing mask https://t.co/hfD6ycp1oc pic.twitter.com/6RqaNE0Mti

— ADHD & Autism (@ADHD_Autism) September 30, 2020

According to Breiterman, the Southwest employees ignored a doctor’s note explaining Ava’s  medical situation, especially her sensory sensitivities. Kelly and Ava were not allowed to have their bags back, which were flown through to her final destination, and were given a $50 voucher for a different airline. Ultimately Kelly had to rent a car and drive the 500 miles home. Kelly says that after the experience, her daughter continues to have a very difficult time with her emotions, saying that “it will take multiple therapies to make her feel safe again.”

People who fly frequently report seeing this repeated often.

Watching as an @AmericanAir flight attendant is kicking a family off our flight because a two year old is having trouble with not fussing with the mask. Two year old crying in the background. “The child will not comply with our mask policy.”

— President-Elect Karlyn Borysenko (@DrKarlynB) September 18, 2020

I do love it when an entire flight filled with people is delayed because we need to return to the gate to kick a toddler off the plane.

— President-Elect Karlyn Borysenko (@DrKarlynB) December 4, 2020

Guys, this happens all the time. I’ve witnessed this happening directly on at least half a dozen flights I’ve been on since July.

And guess what: the airlines are in line to receive billions in taxpayer bailout money when average Americans are left without a second stimulus. https://t.co/xmOGsVwuZU

— President-Elect Karlyn Borysenko (@DrKarlynB) December 12, 2020

So I guess the question is this: with a virus that essentially has a 99% overall recovery rate, all available research showing evidence that children are not responsible for the transmission of the disease to adults, the COVID mortality rate for children ages 0-19 being almost zero, and the airlines collecting billions of taxpayer dollars from bailouts, why are we allowing this kind of ridiculous passenger treatment?