A New Jersey family was kicked off a JetBlue flight recently over a birthday cake.
“We were just so happy, couldn’t wait to get to Las Vegas, and all of a sudden, this occurred, and my two children are screaming, crying,” Minta Burke told ABC 7 News. “They’re confused, not knowing what’s going on. They were traumatized.”
The four family members were on their way to Las Vegas to celebrate Burke’s 40th birthday. Her husband had surprised her with the trip, Burke said.
They boarded their flight at New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport but were kicked off when crew members wouldn’t find a place to store the birthday cake.
Burke’s husband, Cameron, initially put it in an overhead compartment but then was told to move it. He placed it under a seat, but then a different flight attendant determined it couldn’t sit under the seat either.
“You know, you could see the gestures, then she was pointing to her, ‘Did you tell him he couldn’t put anything in the overhead compartment?'” Cameron said. “I had approached them, and I said everything was fine. And she said, ‘Sir, this does not involve you.’ When she told me I had been non-compliant, then I said, ‘Ma’am, had you been drinking?’ Because her behavior was not normal.”
Since the family didn’t want the cake to be thrown away and the crew members refused to place it anywhere else, the Burke family was removed from the flight.
JetBlue issued a statement that contradicted what the Burke family said.
The company’s statement read: “(The customer) refused multiple requests from the crew to remove the items… became agitated, cursed and yelled at the crew and made false accusations about a crewmember’s fitness to fly.”
Cameron said he never cursed or raised his voice. He also told reporters that the rest of the people on board were very supportive of his family.
“The passengers were very understanding,” Cameron said. “They knew that this was a strange situation.”
JetBlue immediately refunded the family for the tickets, which the Burkes said showed they should have never been kicked off the plane.
