Family kicked off JetBlue flight because toddler wouldn't keep face mask on
Raw video: Family told to get off JetBlue flight because toddler wouldn't wear a mask.
A New York City mother on a JetBlue flight from Orlando, Fla., to Newark, N.J., was told she had to get off the airplane, along with her six children, because her 2-year-old daughter would not wear a face mask – and now she says her husband is considering legal action against the airline.
Chaya Bruck of Brooklyn told Fox News that she believes the airline's current mask policy concerning small children is "not feasible," and added that her recent experience was not only humiliating but “traumatizing" for her kids as well.
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Bruck said flight attendants told her she had to get off the flight if her 2-year-old could not wear a mask, even as she tried to explain that she would try to get the toddler, Dina, to keep the mask on. Bruck, meanwhile, said she was under the impression that her daughter was exempt from wearing one.
“I’m not a confrontational person, I didn’t want any trouble, I just wanted to get home with my six kids after a family vacation and this put a damper on our experience,” said Bruck, who claimed that the airline's crew members “were rude to me" during the Aug. 19 flight.
Bruck claims that just prior to the flight, she heard on the loudspeaker that "small children" were exempt from wearing a face mask if they couldn’t keep it on, but that the announcement never specified an age. This mandate was also listed on JetBlue's "Traveling With Kids" webpage, claims Bruck – but it, too, did not specify an age. In the below screenshot, allegedly taken by Bruck's husband on Aug. 19, the site says "children who are not able to maintain a face covering are exempt from the requirement."
Bruck's husband believes the wording was changed sometime after 10 p.m., and has been altered to read "all travelers 2 years and older must wear a face covering over their nose and mouth throughout their journey, including during check-in, boarding, while in flight and deplaning."
Bruck family said a screenshot of JetBlue’s website from Wednesday around 10 p.m. showed JetBlue’s "Traveling with Kids" section still included the line, "Children who are not able to maintain a face covering are execpt from the requirement" of wearing a face mask. They claim that line was dropped after 10 p.m. as it no longer appears in the section. (Bruck family screenshot of JetBlue’s website)
JetBlue, however, claims that they have not updated their policy since Aug. 10.
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Meanwhile, Bruck told Fox News on Thursday that it is “inhumane” to publish one policy on the website while enforcing a different one in person. According to Bruck, her five older children were all wearing masks on Wednesday's flight, but her toddler daughter Dina wouldn't keep it on.
“She was pulling it off, she had a pacifier in her mouth and they [flight attendants] saw it happening,” she explained, adding that flight attendants soon told her to get off the plane.
“The rest of the passengers were supporting me and told me not to get off the plane,” Bruck said. “So I said, ‘I am not leaving, I need to get home, I paid for these flights.’”
“They [crew members] said, 'If you don’t get off the plane now, we are going to have to disembark all the passengers,' and then the passengers were yelling and screaming at the crew members, [saying,] ‘This is ridiculous, she is alone with six kids,’ … [The flight attendants] didn’t care.”
In a video sent to Fox News showing all passengers being forced to deplane, some can be heard complaining.
“Can you believe this that a 2-year-old cannot wear a mask and we’re all getting off the plane?” one passenger is heard saying in a video.
“Everyone call customer service on JetBlue,” another passenger says.
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“My kids started crying. They got scared. They didn’t know what was going on. It was very traumatizing,” Bruck said.
Bruck told Fox News she wasn’t allowed back on the flight and JetBlue didn’t help her book another one. She said she ended up finding another flight home with United Airlines later that evening. Bruck, who only eats kosher food, added that, amid the commotion, she accidentally left the sandwiches she had made on the JetBlue flight, and her family was left without food for hours since she could not eat the food at the airport due to religious reasons.
She noted that she met a couple in the airport lobby who was not allowed back on the JetBlue flight because they stood up for her.
“It’s nice to know that we haven’t lost faith in humanity when the passengers stood up for me,” Bruck said.
Bruck was stranded in Florida for more than five hours on Wednesday, and arrived back to her New York City home around midnight. Her husband is now considering suing JetBlue over the incident.
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In a statement sent to Fox News, Derek Dombrowski, JetBlue Airways’ corporate communications manager, said, “During these unprecedented times, our first priority is to keep crewmembers and customers safe, and we’ve quickly introduced new safety policies and procedures throughout the pandemic.”
He pointed to the fact that JetBlue’s “face covering policy was updated most recently on Aug. 10 to ensure everyone is wearing a face-covering – adults and children alike – to help prevent the spread of coronavirus.”
“Children age 2 and over must wear a face covering, consistent with CDC guidelines, which say ‘Masks should not be worn by children under the age of 2,’” Dombrowski continued.
He went on to note that “customers receive an email before their flight outlining the latest safety protocols and face-covering policies.” Dombrowski also said the policy is listed on the JetBlue website.
“Our crew members are ready to assist customers in the airport and onboard who might need support,” Dombrowski said. “We have a flexible rebooking policy for those who are unable to meet this requirement, and customers who refuse to follow these standards after requests from crewmembers will be reviewed for further travel eligibility on JetBlue.”
In any case, Brock doesn't see how such a policy makes sense.
“I think that it’s not feasible for a child who is 2 years old to wear a mask. I don’t think under 4 is even possible to force a child to wear a mask, and especially if they have a pacifier in their mouth,” Bruck said. “How is a child supposed to breathe covering their nose and their mouth?”
“A 2-year-old child does not have the logic as an older kid and doesn’t understand the consequences of not wearing the mask,” she stressed.
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“The way they treated me and went about it is inhumane,” she continued. “I felt very targeted."