EXCLUSIVE: A New Jersey couple temporarily forced to land a Spirit Airlines flight from Orlando, Florida, to Atlantic City, accused the airline of lying when they said that they – and not their young son – refused to obey a federal order. mask.
Ari and Avital Eisenberg, from Toms River, NJ, were on flight 138 on Monday with their children – Rikki, 2, and Daniel, 7, who has special needs – after spending the Easter vacation in Florida. Avital is also seven months pregnant.
The couple told Fox News that a flight attendant kicked them off the plane because Rikki was not complying with the airline’s mask policy, which stipulates that passengers aged 2 or older must wear a mask. Avital Eisenberg said he also explained that his son has frequent seizures and that covering his mouth can induce them, and promised to do everything possible to ensure that he continues with the coverage.
According to a video posted on social media, a flight attendant is seen telling the family to get off the plane for “non-compliance”.
“I told you, noncompliance – you’re going to have to leave. I didn’t want to do that, ”says a flight attendant who was not the crew member who initially confronted the family.
“We are wearing masks,” says Avital Eisenberg.
“She’s not wearing it,” said a crew member of the 2-year-old, sitting on his mother’s lap, eating yogurt. “The pilot wants you out.”
“She just turned two,” says the mother.
After some discussion, the commissioner leaves and threatens to call the police.
“She kept saying that she needed me to get off the plane and I said I’m not going anywhere, I didn’t do anything wrong,” Avital Eisenberg told Fox News. “We try to explain that we are doing everything we can with the children.”
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Other passengers can be heard coming in defense of the family, with a man saying he will make the family wear masks on the flight, while another woman says other young children on the flight do not wear masks.
The flight attendant, who reportedly spoke to the family on behalf of one of her co-workers, says “it is not my choice” as the father argues that they also have a child with special needs on board with them.
Additional clips posted on social media reportedly show the family getting out of their seats along with other passengers after everyone was told they needed to disembark from the plane.
A spokesman for Spirit told Fox News that all passengers on the plane, including the family, boarded again after the company’s Orlando staff assured the family would follow the mask policy.
The airline said the parents refused to wear masks and that their actions were not on their children. In response, the couple told Fox News that Spirit’s statement was “a lie.”
“I have no words. Madness on the next level. I understand if I give someone attitude … but there was none of that. We were about to take off,” said Ari Eisenberg. “Everything was fine and suddenly someone approached us and asked us to disembark. We obeyed them and had nothing to say. I kept asking what we did not obey and nothing to say.”
Avital Eisenberg called the experience “traumatic” for his children.
“My son lost the medicine window. Thank goodness he didn’t have a fit. He was sitting there with a wet diaper on because I couldn’t change it during the whole thing,” she said. “My daughter is going crazy with all this, it was a terrible and terrible experience to spend, let alone someone with a child with special needs.”
The flight attendant who made the request before passengers started recording would not be allowed to return to the flight and was seen being escorted off the plane by Orlando police.
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A federal mandate issued by President Joe Biden in January requires all individuals over the age of two to wear masks on planes, trains and buses. The order was recently extended by the Federal Aviation Administration due to cases of disturbing behavior that remain “very high”.
According to the TSA, fines for breach of mandate can range from $ 250 for the first offense to up to $ 1,500 for repeat offenders.
Those exempt from the order include travelers under the age of 2, the disabled who cannot wear a mask or cannot wear a mask safely due to the disability, as defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act, and those for whom a mask would be created “a risk to health, safety or duty to work in the workplace, as determined by the relevant workplace safety guidelines or federal regulations. “
The Orlando Police Department did not immediately respond to Fox News’s requests for comment.