Flight attendant locks ex-FBI agent’s wife and child in plane bathroom

A woman who was locked in a plane bathroom with her young child and accused of causing a “terrorist” incident is suing the airline.

The wife of a former FBI agent claims a flight attendant locked her in an aeroplane bathroom with her three-year-old son — and then accused her of causing a “terrorist” incident, according to a lawsuit.

Yazz Giraldo, a mother of two who is of Middle Eastern and Latin descent, is “traumatised” by the incident on an American Airlines flight and believes she was racially targeted because she and her husband, Ali Moghaddam, were speaking Farsi to their toddlers, the New York Post reports.

The drama unfolded as the family was flying from Fort Lauderdale, Florida to New York in September for a Long Island wedding. Both kids urgently needed the rest room, said Ms Giraldo, who tried to take the baby to the first-class bathroom closest to their seats at the front of the plane.

Yazz Giraldo claims a flight attendant locked her in the bathroom with one of her children. Picture: Instagram/yazzgiraldo

“Everybody else was using it,” she said, but one flight attendant barred her without explanation from doing the same.

She changed the baby’s nappy at the rear of the plane, where Mr Moghaddam was sitting separately.

A second flight attendant there told her there was no prohibition on using the closer bathroom so she took her son to that lavatory, according to a Brooklyn Federal Court discrimination lawsuit she filed against American Airlines.

The flight attendant who barred her from first class tried to stop her — even as the desperate child “was holding himself, he was about to lose it”, Ms Giraldo said.

“I closed the door, when I’m inside the bathroom I start hearing the noise, ‘tick, tick, tick’,” she said of the sound of the door locking. “I freaked out. I was already under so much stress. … I started to panic, I banged on the door a few times and I said, ‘Let me out of here’.”

Ms Giraldo’s husband Ali Moghaddam is a former FBI agent. Picture: Instagram/yazzgiraldo

“She was punishing me for challenging her,” Ms Giraldo, 36, a former television host who speaks three languages, said of the flight attendant, who was not identified in the lawsuit.

Ms Giraldo said she lost track of time inside the bathroom and was weeping and “shaking” by the time she was released.

A few minutes later, a supervisor loudly berated her in front of other passengers, claiming “the pilot decided to put the plane under terrorist attack warning because of you”.

When Ms Giraldo, whose baby was sleeping on her chest, tried to explain she’d been misled about the bathroom and locked inside, the screaming attendant accused her of lying.

“I immediately knew it was racism. I immediately knew I was being discriminated against,” she said.

“I was humiliated.”

Ms Giraldo believes she was racially targeted. Picture: Instagram/yazzgiraldo

A former Pennsylvania prosecutor who served six years in the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Mr Moghaddam, 44, was unaware of the unfolding drama until police escorted them off the plane when it landed in New York.

“I dedicated about a decade of my life to public service, to protecting the community. Joint Terrorism Task Force, undercover, S.W.A.T. (Special Weapons and Tactics), all of this … for my family to be labelled as terrorist and be marched off a plane just because we want to change a diaper?” he told The Post.

Responding officers only softened their approach after he requested to be taken to the airport’s FBI substation and the officers realised he had law enforcement experience.

They were let go after 15 minutes.

The incident happened on an American Airlines flight from Fort Lauderdale to New York. Picture: Daniel Slim/AFP

Once avid travellers, the couple now fears flying and questions whether they should be teaching their children Farsi.

Ms Giraldo is now in therapy, according to their lawyer, Jitesh Dudani.

“For me there’s certain terms that have a history and connotation that is very negative,” Mr Moghaddam said.

“That word terrorism is unique, especially considering all my sacrifices … you don’t throw that around.”

The airline responded, “American strives to provide a positive and welcoming experience to everyone who travels with us and we take allegations of discrimination very seriously.

“We are reviewing the details of the lawsuit.”

This article originally appeared on the New York Post and was reproduced with permission