Frontier Airlines said they cancelled a flight from Florida on Sunday after a “large group” of passengers refused to wear masks — but the family involved claims they were booted simply because of a maskless baby.
The fracas took place aboard flight 2878, which was set to depart Miami en route to LaGuardia Airport at 7 p.m. until the disagreement forced all passengers to deplane and reschedule a flight for the next morning.
“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.”
However, fellow passenger Hershey Greenbaum told The Post the child seemed to be the reason for the family’s removal.
“We were all on the plane when they [flight attendants] came on and saw the 18-month-old baby without a mask,” Greenbaum said.
In video footage of the incident, the father can be seen explaining that the child was under the age of two.
Greenbaum said other passengers came to the defense of the family and became “rowdy” when they were booted.
The parents told the attendants they would try to fit a covering on the baby, according to Greenbaum, but that not did not stop them from taking action.
“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 said.
“Most of them were saying ‘Don’t let them do this to you,’” Greenbaum said of the other passengers. “Most of the people were against it, Jewish or not Jewish, why are you picking on an 18-month-old kid?”
The company said: “To be clear, the issue did not stem from a child under the age of two.”
At least one passenger filmed part of the interaction, which was later posted to Twitter by the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council.
Numerous passengers can be heard calling out the flight staff for what they believed to be an unjustified action.
“What are you accomplishing?” one person says.
“You’re gonna pay the consequences,” another passenger can be heard saying.
“This is Nazi Germany,” a third person shouts.
Greenbaum said about 15 police officers responded to the incident.
