A family of five has said they were asked to leave a JetBlue flight from Fort Lauderdale to New York on July 2, with no explanation from the airline.
Tamir Raanan and his wife Mandy Ifrah were travelling with their three daughters from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood airport to New York when the incident occurred.
The family’s attorney, David Templer, told local media that the incident began when the couple’s one-year-old daughter, Eden, began kicking a passenger’s seat. Ifrah said she apologized to the passenger.
Video taken by Raanan shows a flight supervisor, named as Armando Gonzalez, asking the family to leave the plane, and inviting them to have a discussion with him outside. Ifrah refuses to leave, saying she wants to get home. She says the passenger in front of her had told her to “tie her child’s feet”.
The couple are then seen arguing with Gonzalez outside the plane, repeatedly demanding an explanation for being asked to leave. Gonzalez says they did not cooperate with him but refuses to give further information or to discuss why the were removed from the plane.
JetBlue later stated that the adults in the family were making threats, and it was their actions that caused them to be taken off the plane.
Raanan’s footage shows a police officer stepping in and telling the family they would not be re-boarding the flight, but that they could take the matter up with the airline at a later date. Credit: Tamir Raanan and Mandy Ifrah via Storyful
