Chrisean Rose, a Black father on a Frontier Airlines flight, was removed with his 2-year-old daughter and threatened with police arrest for comforting his daughter on a flight.
As reported by WSB-TV on August 10, Chrisean took a video of a flight attendant confronting him on his flight from Atlanta to Orlando.
The flight attendant threatened Chrisean and little Rayana because they allegedly violated federal law about where children over the age of 24 months could sit on a plane – the law constitutes children just one month younger than Rayana on a parent’s lap.
“She’s a small kid; she’s nervous. I explained to the flight attendant that this is only our first time traveling, and she’s a little bit nervous,” Rose told WSB-TV what he explained to the flight attendant to no avail.
“They will arrest you. I’m telling you right now,” the Frontier flight attendant told the father.
“I did not think it needed to be that far. I mean, arrest for what? For a kid crying?” the father said. Chrisean insisted that he understood the policy but that Rayana was nervous and wanted to comfort his daughter. He purchased both tickets and didn’t see the problem with them.
“It’s wrong for you to do that. I’m just trying to comfort her.”
Frontier then turned the plane around and took it back to the gate; they forced the father-daughter pair to get off the plane.
Chrisean told the news outlet that for every other flight on his trip after the Frontier Airlines incident, Rayana was able to sit with him during takeoff to comfort her. He ended up purchasing a new ticket for the day after with Delta, and he said he had no issue.
“Babies don’t understand policies,” the disgusted dad said.
Frontier Airlines released a statement regarding the situation following the incident, saying, “It is an FAA requirement that all passengers over the age of 24 months must be buckled into their seat for takeoff and landing. The parent refused to comply and therefore was asked to exit the aircraft with the child.”
In other words, this was some bullsh*t.