Spirit Airlines Kicked Woman Off Plane Allegedly For Breastfeeding Baby Before Takeoff

Spirit Airlines allegedly kicked out a Houston woman from a plane during a flight Saturday for breastfeeding her son despite warnings from flight attendants against doing so. Mei Rui, who was traveling to New York from Houston with her elderly parents and 2-year-old son, detailed her ordeal in a Facebook post Sunday.

"If this happened to your family, what would you do? This would NEVER happen to my family, I assure you! (Chuckle)” she wrote. “He is (buckled) in his seatbelt. What else do you want me to do?"

"I am terribly sorry for the trouble and inconvenience this has caused to all other passengers on the plane. We tried everything I could to stop my poor baby from crying and disturbing the other passengers, but he was jolted awake a 5th time because of the 3 hour delay that resulted in unboarding/reboardjng, lots of loud announcements. He completely lost it, but crying is not a criminal offense, especially since if you let me do my job as his mother, nobody on the airplane would have even noticed his presence! (As another passenger said, he was completely quiet for the first 2 hours of the delay)," she wrote.

Mei was traveling to New York to take part in a recording for a clinical study dealing with cancer.

Mei shared a video she recorded inside the plane before being evicted, showing her son in his seat and screaming. She said she started breastfeeding her baby before the doors were closed, but the flight attendants instructed her to stop.

"I said as soon as the plane's door closes, I will put him in his seat," Mei said. Later another flight attendant came to get the family off the plane even though the baby was in his seat.

"He was making very loud noises, but that's not criminal," Mei said, adding the crew had made up their minds to get them off the plane.

"It was humiliating to be chased off a plane in front of hundreds of people," Mei went on to say. "We had never been through anything close to this."

In a statement to CBS-affiliated television station KHOU 11, Spirit Airlines said: "Our records indicate a passenger was removed from Flight 712 after refusing to comply with crew instructions several times during taxi to runway and safety briefing. To protect the safety of our guests and crew, FAA regulations and airline policies require all passengers to stay seated and buckled during takeoff and landing. We apologize for any inconvenience to our guests. As a courtesy, we’ve issued a full refund to the passenger in question."

International Business Times has reached out to the airline for further comments.