Family demands apology over being booted from United Airlines flight over safety seat

A WOMAN has accused an airline of racially profiling her family after they were booted off a flight, with video showing a pilot getting involved. But there’s a twist.

‘I felt humiliated and helpless’

A MUSLIM American family that was kicked off a flight at a Chicago airport has demanded an apology from United Airlines, saying they were victims of racial profiling.

The family of five, from Libertyville, Illinois, said they boarded a flight bound for Washington DC at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport on March 20 at the start of a spring break holiday in the nation’s capital.

But the family was asked to get off the aircraft “for security reasons” after the parents asked for an extra strap for their youngest child’s safety seat, the Chicago Tribune reports.

When the mother and father repeatedly asked the crew why they were being asked to leave, they were told to exit “peacefully” and return to the gate.

In a post on Facebook that has been shared more than 630,000 times, the mother, Eaman-Amy Saad Shebley, uploaded a video showing the family being asked to leave.

In the video, the father is shown asking why they had to leave while a man appearing to be the pilot replies, “Because it’s my decision”.

The Illinois mother said she felt “singled-out, humiliated and helpless” after her family was kicked off the aircraft.

The mother asks, “Is this a discriminatory decision? What is the reason?”

The pilot then replies, “Because it is a safety issue”.

Along with the video, Ms Saad Shebley posted: “Shame on you #unitedAirlines for profiling my family and me for no reason other than how we look and kicking us off the plane for “safety flight issues” on our flight to DC for the kids spring break.

“SHARE so that we Americans stand together to stop discrimination.”

She later told the media: “I felt singled-out, humiliated and helpless”.

In a statement, United Airlines said the family was asked to leave the flight “because of concerns about their child’s safety seat, which did not comply with federal safety regulations”.

But Ahmed Rehab, executive director of Chicago’s Council on American-Islamic Relations, questioned why the family were asked to leave.

“We are tired of Muslim-looking passengers being removed from flights for the flimsiest reasons, under a cryptic claim of ‘security’,” he said.

Rehab said the family had tried to check in the booster seat at the gate but were told them to bring it on board because the computer system was down.

But on the aircraft, a flight attendant told the family not to use the booster seat, and asked to see their boarding passes before ordering them to leave.

The incident comes less than a year after United Airlines refused to serve passenger Tahera Ahmad an unopened can of Diet Coke in case she used it as a weapon. Picture: Facebook/Tahera Ahmad

Rehab said other passengers around the family joined in and said the family did nothing wrong.

The couple and their children took a later flight to Washington DC and booked a return flight with another airline.

Rehab said the family has asked for a formal apology, corrective action for the employees involved in the incident, and reimbursement for the return flight and costs associated with changing their travel plans.

“This family did nothing to earn the flight crew’s scorn, other than trying to understand how they can best secure their baby. Several witnesses corroborate that,” he said.

This is not the first time United Airlines has been accused of mistreating Muslim passengers.

In May, on a United flight from Chicago to Washington DC operated Shuttle America, a flight attendant allegedly told Muslim woman Tahera Ahmad she could not open her own can of Diet Coke in case she used it as a weapon.

The incident sparked the viral hashtag #UnitedforTahera and a boycott against United Airlines that ended when the airline issued a formal apology a week later.