Unruly 3-year-old kicked off Alaska Air flight

By A. Pawlowski, msnbc.com contributor

Alaska Airlines ordered a screaming, squirming toddler off a plane over Memorial Day weekend when he would not stay buckled in his seat.

The incident happened Saturday night on a flight from Seattle to Miami -- the first leg of a long journey to the Virgin Islands for Mark Yanchuk, a computer salesman from Everett, Wash., his wife, mother-in-law and two small children.

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The family was allowed to board early and they split up once on the plane. Yanchuk and his 3-year-old son, Daniel, sat in the main cabin, while his wife, mother-in-law and one-year-old child took their seats in first class.

Daniel played with an iPad until passengers were asked to turn off their electronic devices and Yanchuk took the gadget away.

?He got a little bit cranky, started screaming, maybe yelling a little bit, crying,? Yanchuk told msnbc.com.

?During this whole time I?m trying to put him in his seat and his seat belt. I put the seat belt on him but not all the way, so I?m struggling to put in on and he?s still yelling.?

Alaska Airlines spokesman Paul McElroy said flight attendants came to check on the father and the boy several times before departure to try to help calm the child down, but Daniel was restless and wouldn?t get buckled in.

?Everybody wanted to make this work, just trying to work with the child and get him to sit upright,? McElroy said.

?He kept lying down in his seat, his legs were dangling over the arm rest. At one point, we did have the seat belt fastened but because the child was lying down, now the belt was across his neck and the flight attendants were worried that he would begin to choke himself.?

Yanchuk disputes that account, saying he would never allow his son to get into such a precarious position. He said he tried to calm Daniel down, but couldn?t do it as well as his wife, who was far away.

When the boy finally sat up, the plane pushed back from the gate. But then a flight attendant noticed that the child was lying down in his seat again, so the captain was notified and decided to return to the gate, McElroy said.

?We certainly regret the inconvenience to this family, but the flight crew in their best judgment did make the necessary decision to direct the family to take another flight,? McElroy said, adding it was a safety issue.

Yanchuk and his son were asked to leave. His wife, mother-in-law and one-year-old child were told they could continue the trip, but the family didn?t want to split up, so all five disembarked.

Alaska Airlines offered to rebook them on the same flight the next day, but Yanchuk declined, saying he would be uncomfortable flying the airline again. The family will receive a refund for the flight, McElroy said. Their baggage, which continued on to the Virgin Islands, will be returned soon. The vacation is canceled for now and Yanchuk is still trying to figure out what went wrong.

?I think they overreacted. I know you get kicked off planes for dangerous situations like not wearing a seat belt or running around or something dangerous. But I didn?t see the situation as being dangerous at all,? Yanchuk said.

The next time he flies with Daniel, Yanchuk plans to keep the family seated more closely together and try to distract the toddler more, he added.

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