Spirit Airlines deplaned an entire flight reportedly due to a two-year-old girl not wearing a mask.
As reported by the Independent, the incident caused a two-hour delay in the flight from Orlando to Atlantic City on Monday (April 5).
Footage of the family arguing with airline staff over the fact that their two-year-old had taken off her mask was shared on Twitter yesterday.
The posts claimed that the family-of-four were being removed from the flight as their toddler had been eating without a mask.
In the above video, a toddler can be seen sitting in her pregnant mother's lap while eating, when a member of staff tells her mother that they will have to deplane.
"I told you. Non-compliance - will have to get off," the flight attendant says in the video. "I didn't want to do this."
When the father asks the staff member why they're being made to leave the plane, she replies, "Non-compliance with the masks."
Although both parents are seen wearing their masks in the footage, the father does at one point lower his mask so that it is not covering his face.
When the pair point out that they are indeed wearing face masks, the flight attendant points at their toddler, to which the mom asks, "The baby?" and the attendant nods and says, "Yes".
In the same video, the mom can be heard telling another passenger that her daughter had only turned two a month ago.
Yet the attendant continues to insist they leave, saying: "Exit out of the aircraft, or I'll have to deplane the aircraft and call the police."
In another video taken on the plane and shared online, the mom tells a passenger that she is "seven months pregnant with a special-needs kid on a flight, trying to get [a mask] on her. She's refusing to keep it on but we'll all have to be kicked off."
"Baby that just turned two," the dad adds. "I could have got her a free seat and wrote that she's not two—she just turned two—but I paid for her seat because I'm honest."
Spirit Airlines has since disputed claims that the family was asked to leave due to their young child not wearing her mask.
A spokesperson for the airline told Newsweek that the parents had not been wearing their masks correctly a couple of times before departure, which is why they were asked to leave.
After the two-hour delay, the family were eventually able to board the plane and the flight finally took off.
The flight attendant who took issue with the fact that the toddler was unmasked, did not continue her shift on the flight. Spirit Airlines said per Newsweek that this was due to a staffing decision following the two-hour delay.
