Family threatened with jail over seat

A Southern California father said he and his family were booted from a Delta flight after they declined to give up a seat they had bought for their teenage son and were attempting to use for his 2-year-old sibling.

Brian and Brittany Schear, of Huntington Beach, were on a red-eye flight April 23 from Maui to Los Angeles when they got into an argument with officials after being told that they had to give the seat to another passenger.

“I bought the seat,” Brian Schear is seen telling the agents in a video of the incident, explaining that he initially purchased the seat for his 18-year-old son but sent the teen home early on another flight so that the toddler would have a seat on the plane. “It’s a red-eye. He won’t sleep unless he’s in his car seat. So, otherwise, he’d be sitting in my wife’s lap, crawling all over the place, and it’s not safe.”

The couple said they were also traveling with a 1-year-old.

An agent told Schear that unless he complied, he would have to leave the plane, which had yet to take off.

“Then they can remove me off the plane,” he replied.

“You and your whole family?” the agent asked.

“Yeah, that’s fine,” he said.

“So, then, it’s going to be a federal offense,” another agent quickly chimed in, “and you and your wife will be in jail and your kids will be —.”

“We’re going to be in jail and my kids are going to be what?” Schear interrupted.

“It’s a federal offense if you don’t abide by it,” she said.

“I bought that seat,” Schear said. “You’re saying you’re going to give that away to someone else when I paid for that seat. That’s not right.”

Later in the video, an agent can be heard telling Schear that according to Federal Aviation Administration regulations, his 2-year-old son could not occupy a seat during the flight and would need to sit in an adult’s lap.

Schear explained that his toddler had been strapped into a car seat in his own seat on the destination flight, but the agent brushed him off.

In actuality, the FAA states that children are safer in government-approved car seats — not on laps, saying, “Your arms aren’t capable of holding your child securely, especially during unexpected turbulence.”

“The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) strongly urges you to secure your child in a CRS or device for the duration of your flight,” the agency states. “It’s the smart and right thing to do so that everyone in your family arrives safely at your destination. The FAA is giving you the information you need to make informed decisions about your family’s travel plans.”