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Video: Delta Boots California Family With Young Kids Off Crowded Flight

LOS ANGELES (CBS / AP) -- A California family says they were forced off a Delta plane and threatened with jail after refusing to give up one of their children's seats on a crowded flight.

A video of the April 23 incident was uploaded to YouTube on Wednesday and adds to the list of recent encounters on airlines that went viral, including the dragging of a passenger off a United Express plane.

Brian and Brittany Schear of Huntington Beach were flying with their young son and daughter from Maui back to California when the incident occurred.

"We never thought it was going to get to the point where they were actually getting us all off the flight," Schear told CBS Los Angeles. "As we were leaving the plane, there's four or five passengers waiting for our seat. The bottom line is, they oversold the flight."

On the video, Brian Schear can be heard talking with a person off-camera - it is not clear whether that person is a Delta employee, a security officer, or somebody else.

Schear explains that he wants to put one of the toddlers in a seat originally purchased for his 18-year-old son. Schear says the older child had returned home on an earlier flight.

Delta policy generally prohibits passengers from using a ticket bought in another person's name. Federal regulations do not bar such a switch as long as the new passenger's name can be run through a data base, according to a Transportation Security Administration spokesman.

After Schear says that the airline would have to remove him, the person off-camera replies, "You and your wife will be in jail ... it's a federal offense if you don't abide" by an airline crew's order.

"I bought that seat," Schear protests.

Schear then suggests that his wife could hold the toddler during takeoff and then put the youngster in the car seat. Another person, who appears to be a Delta supervisor, tells him that federal rules require that children under 2 must stay in a parent's lap throughout the flight.

That is false. The Federal Aviation Administration "strongly urges" that infants be in a car seat, although it permits those under 2 to be held in a parent's lap. On its website, Delta recommends that parents buy a seat for children under 2 and put them in an approved child-safety seat.

Delta issued a statement Thursday saying, "We're sorry for what this family experienced. Our team has reached out and will be talking with them to better understand what happened and come to a resolution." The Atlanta-based airline did not immediately explain why the family was removed from the flight.

Congress held two hearings this week on airline customer service - a response to the video of Chicago airport security officers dragging a 69-year-old man off a United Express flight to make room for crew members who were traveling for work.

Executives from United, American, Southwest and Alaska testified at one or both hearings. Delta was notably absent.

 

TM and © Copyright 2017 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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