A Frontier Airlines flight was canceled after it was discovered a couple’s baby was not wearing a mask, witnesses allege, in a scene that has spread rapidly on social media.
“Disturbing incident the last hour on a @FlyFrontier flight as staff told a Hasidic couple to get off because their 18 month old had no mask. Applause is heard as the couple started leaving. Travels say on camera that the applause came from staff who also cheered that ‘we did it,’” the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council tweeted Sunday of the flight that was slated to take off in Miami and land in New York City.
One passenger, Hershey Greenbaum, said that flight attendants saw the baby not wearing a mask, prompting the parents to say they would try to get the child to wear a covering. Greenbaum said others on the flight came to the couple’s defense during the exchange.
“All the people on the plane were getting really mad and rowdy because what are you going to do? It’s an 18-month-old baby,” Greenbaum told the New York Post.
“Most of them were saying, ‘Don’t let them do this to you,’” Greenbaum said. “Most of the people were against it, Jewish or not Jewish. Why are you picking on an 18-month-old kid?”
An Orthodox Jewish person spoke up in defense of the Hasidic couple. Then the whole family siblings and in-laws started leaving the plane at which point the @FlyFrontier ordered everyone off of the airplane. pic.twitter.com/N1OwqxFI3Q
— OJPAC (@OJPAC) March 1, 2021
“What are you accomplishing?” one person says in the video.
“You’re going to pay the consequences,” another passenger says.
Frontier said in a statement that the flight was canceled after a “large group” of passengers refused to wear masks, not because of a young child flying maskless.
“Multiple people, including several adults, were asked repeatedly to wear their masks and refused to do so,” the airline said in a statement Sunday night. “Based on the continued refusal to comply with the federal mask mandate, refusal to disembark the aircraft and aggression towards the flight crew, local law enforcement was engaged.”
The video has prompted outrage on social media, with some describing the scene as an example of anti-Semitism and others accusing the airline of “lying” about the reason for the cancellation.
Extremely troubling behavior by @FlyFrontier staff.
An immediate investigation is necessary.
Anti – Semitism will NOT be tolerated. https://t.co/KoSnyAfdzZ
— Boris Epshteyn (@BorisEP) March 1, 2021
Frontier just made it worse for themselves with this lying non-apology that blames an entire “group of Jews” despite video evidence showing the contrary!
Wish I could say I’ll never fly Frontier again but who the hell flies Frontier?!#FinalFrontier https://t.co/hrwilTo0mf
— Dov Hikind (@HikindDov) March 1, 2021
A. @FlyFrontier is lying as there is video
B. There is no “federal law” requiring masks
Frontier is now using a massive excavator to dig its hole. https://t.co/sodgGLErnE
— John Cardillo (@johncardillo) March 1, 2021
How could you have conducted an investigation in this time sufficient to contradict the video evidence already circulating? Do you have comment on the behavior of your employees (high-fiving and discussing “those Jews”) when they removed this couple and their child (not a group).
— Bethany S. Mandel (@bethanyshondark) March 1, 2021
