Tearful toddler kicked off plane by air crew af ter her tantrum was branded security risk
A CRYING 19-month-old girl was removed from a plane and met by police after she was accused of causing a security breach.
As the aircraft taxied on the runway at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel, bound for Luton, Sarina Aziz became agitated after cabin crew asked that she sit on her parents’ lap.
Ariella and Mark Aziz, who live in north London, struggled to keep their daughter still after strapping her in the connector belt required f or children under the age of two.
However, they say they were shocked to find that staff had decided to alert the captain, who took the decision to halt the flight and call security to remove the family from the plane.
Mr Aziz, who said the family are seeking legal advice over the incident on a Transavia Airlines flight in Tel Aviv, said: ‘I want to emphasise that we wanted to, and were, complying with the crew’s instructions.
‘I was simply trying to restrain our daughter who had become unhappy after being moved from a child seat on to our l aps. We had actually purchased a seat for her to sit in, and she was very happy in that and belted in correctly.
‘But the stewardess came up to us and said that their policy was for the child to be seated on a parent’s lap. We said we were happy to go along with this and were i n no way argumentative.’
Mr Aziz described how after being moved from her seat, his daughter became frustrated and unhappy, and i t became difficult to keep her subdued.
Speaking to Jewish News Online, Mrs Aziz said: ‘It was like a terrorist incident, I couldn’t believe it. The next thing you know we’re all in squad cars heading back to Ben Gurion.’
Fellow passenger Ben Wasserstrum described how the pilot said that there had been ‘ a security breach’ before returning those on board to the terminal.
A spokesman for Transavia told MailOnline: ‘It is very important that flight safety instructions are followed by all our passengers. It was unfortunate that the child was ill but even then the flight safety rules must be followed.’
However, Mr Aziz said his daughter was not ‘ill’, although he admits that she was sick after she was moved. He said: ‘I was covered in sick but we received no sympathy from the staff whatsoever.’
He added: ‘ The airline is trying to legitimise their actions and shirk responsibility. I believe that if this instance was legitimate then they’d be kicking families off planes every day because I’ve been on so many flights where babies don’t settle.
‘But you can’t ban families from going away with babies on planes – that would be crazy.’