COUPLE CALL IT JETBOO
Kid got them kicked off jet
AN OUTRAGED Brooklyn couple says JetBlue booted them from a flight after their 1-year-old daughter kicked a seat — but the airline says they were tossed because they threatened another passenger.
Mandy Ifrah (photo) and her husband, Tamir Raanan, were on the runway ready to return to Kennedy Airport from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., last month when cranky baby Eden started kicking a fellow flyer’s seat, Ifrah told the Daily News on Wednesday.
Ifrah apologized, and the annoyed passenger stood to change seats. The mom of three said she then focused on her fussy daughter, while the woman seated in front of them complained to her companion.
“Before we know it, the pilot says we’re going back to the gate — and then security came onto the flight and said we have to get our things and get off the flight,” Ifrah told The News. “We kept asking, ‘What’s the reason you’re kicking us off the flight?’ ”
“Other passengers said, ‘Nothing happened, it’s not right, let’s just leave,’ ” she added.
Video shot on the June 21 flight shows the mother protesting a JetBlue flight attendant’s requests for the family of five to deplane.
“I need to get back to New York. I need my kids back home,” Ifrah says off-camera. “This is ridiculous . . . I’m not getting off the plane. I have three kids. Where do you want me to go?”
A deputy from the Broward County Sheriff’s Office ultimately intervened in the dispute.
The family wound up booking a hotel room and worked to find an alternate flight, their Floridabased attorney, David Templer, told The News.
It took a week to get their luggage back.
JetBlue disputed Ifrah’s account of the untimely ouster.
“After a verbal altercation that included physical threats and profanities against a nearby customer, the aircraft door was reopened and our airports team politely asked the customers to step off to discuss the situation,” the company told The News in a statement.
“The customers refused repeated requests and our crew members deplaned the entire aircraft. Law enforcement escorted them out of the gate area and we provided a refund.”
The family wasn’t kicked off “due to the actions of their children,” the airline added.