A Colorado family was kicked off a flight because their baby did not want to wear a mask.
‘The experience was absolutely traumatizing’ and ‘very humiliating,’ Eliz Orban, who was removed from an airplane because her 2-year-old daughter refused to wear a mask, told Fox & Friends Weekend.
Eliz described the experience as “absolutely traumatizing” and “very humiliating.” She recorded a crew member speaking with her husband as he was doing his best to keep the mask on their baby. The footage, which the mother shared on social media, shows her husband telling the crew member that he was holding the protective mask on his child’s face.
The tweet has so far gotten more than 22,000 likes and was shared more than 10,000 times.
“We are premier members with United, so we’ve flown many times, even during the pandemic we’ve flown with our 2-year-old,” Eliz said.
“We’ve just flown two months ago because all of our family lives on the East Coast, so this is the only way for them to see their granddaughter,”she added. “And this time was just extremely different.”
Today we got kicked off of a United flight going from Denver to Newark because our 2yo would not “comply” and keep her mask on. Go see the full IGTV on my Instagram @elizfulop 😷 pic.twitter.com/KXCICsBSMj
— Eliz Orban (@elizfulop) December 12, 2020
She also noted that “the staff was rude” from “the get-go.”
“We felt like we got no warning, no working with us, no asking questions, nothing to help in the situation,” the disappointed mother added.
“It was just like, ‘Oh, well your 2-year-old is not complying, you guys are off the plane.’”
Eliz explained that as soon as she and her family got on the plane, a crew member asked how old their daughter is and demanded she put on a mask.
She said they asked for a mask since the child did not have one and the crew member gave them one before they sat down.
“After that, the flight attendants wouldn’t talk to us,” Eliz said.
“We kind of noticed them walking by and kept checking what we were doing, and it just felt really, really, really weird,” she added.
“And that was the only interaction we had with a flight attendant or with anyone saying anything.”
“The next thing was a supervisor coming and saying that we need to leave the plane,” she said.
In a statement sent to Fox News, a United Airlines spokesperson said,
“The health and safety of our employees and customers is our highest priority, which is why we have a multi-layered set of policies, including mandating that everyone on board 2 and older wears a mask.”
“These procedures are not only backed by guidance from the CDC [The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] and our partners at the Cleveland Clinic, but they’re also consistent across every major airline.”
According to the spokesperson, the family has not been banned from using the company’s services.
Will Cain of Fox asked Eliz if her disagreement is with “the policy, with the flight attendants or is it larger, where we are as a society right now when it comes to these sort of mandates?”
“Definitely all of it,” she answered.
“Me and my husband are both immigrants. We’ve come from Europe, and we’ve grown up in a very different country, and coming here has been just a huge blessing, you know, living the American dream and living in free America.”
“I just have to say the past year has just been a huge PTSD for us and very, very scary with everything going on,” she added.
For Eyewitness News’ report on the story, please see the video below.
