A family was kicked off a flight in the United States after being told they were violating mask-wearing rules.
Videos of the confrontation with Spirit Airlines staff began surfacing on Tuesday, showing a father, a pregnant mother, and their two children being told to leave the plane. Their youngest child, a two-year-old, is seen sitting in her mother's lap not wearing a mask and eating.
Both parents are wearing masks, but the father occasionally removes his when speaking to flight attendants.
The mother told the flight attendant the girl had just turned two years old, but Spirit Airlines requires all passengers aged two and above to wear a mask unless they're eating, which is what the child is doing.
"If you're not compliant, you will have to get off," a flight attendant told the family as the father asked for an explanation and threatened to call his lawyer.
According to videos posted online, one Spirit staffer gestured towards the child and said, "she's not wearing a mask".
"The baby?" the mother replied.
A passenger seated next to them said that "a lot of kids aren't wearing masks".
"You've been sitting next to me. Was I wearing the mask the whole time? Was I wearing the mask the whole time everybody?" the father asks, who pulled his mask down and back up a number of times during the interaction.
"It's not my choice. You have to take your stuff and get off," the Spirit Airline worker said, insisting the family was in "non-compliance with the mask policy".
"We're done talking. The pilot wants you off, so you have to get off."
Another clip shows the passengers packing up as the father notes that his wife is pregnant, his daughter just turned two years old, and his special needs son, who was sitting nearby, experiences seizures.
The family and all passengers on board the flight from Orlando, Florida to Atlantic City, New Jersey were required to leave the plane before later being allowed back on. Spirit Airlines told Business Insider it was standard protocol to deboard the entire plane if there was an incident with a passenger.
The company added the family initially first refused to leave, saying that's why all passengers were forced off the plane. If they had agreed to deplane, all passengers would've stayed on board.
It also insisted they asked the family to leave the plane because the parents weren't complying with mask mandates, not the young child, adding this wasn't captured on video and happened before the incidents in the widely-shared footage occurred.
The family and the rest of the passengers were later allowed back on board.
