United Airlines has reportedly apologized to a woman who claimed flight crew members asked her to remove her toddler son’s ventilator, leaving her “humiliated” during a flight earlier this month.
Melissa Sotomayor posted a now-viral TikTok video recounting how the crew aboard her March 8 flight from Tampa, Florida, to Newark, New Jersey, tried to make her detach her 21-month-old son’s ventilator and a tracheostomy tube, which he depends on, and stow the devices so the plane could take off.
“This message is for United Airlines,” Sotomayor said in the video. “The way that you treated my son when we were attempting to fly home from Tampa to Newark was absolutely ridiculous.”
A United Airlines spokesperson told Fox News Digital via email that the airline “connected with the customer to address her concerns and apologized for any frustration she may have experienced.”
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Sotomayor, however, told NBC News that she didn’t believe the airline’s apology was “sincere.”
In the nearly 10-minute video, which has racked up more than 1.2 million views, Sotomayor said her son is “medically complex” after being born premature at 22 weeks gestation.
Sotomayor said she received medical clearance and documentation that her son could fly safely from the airlines and his doctors – a pulmonologist and pediatrician. She said they did not have any problems flying to Tampa and only had issues on the return flight home.
When one flight attendant told her to detach her son from the machines, Sotomayor said she couldn’t because “they are keeping him alive” and presented the documentation.
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A second flight attendant then approached and told her that if she didn’t comply they may have to move her seats, Sotomayor said. The mother said he then showed the documentation a second time and said that her seats were selected by the airline’s accessibility department before the flight.
A third flight attendant then told her to remove the devices, saying her son would “be OK until we’re in the air at a high enough altitude.” Sotomayor said she refused.
A nearby passenger intervened and apologized for the way the flight crew was treating her, Sotomayor said.
But then the captain got involved and told Sotomayor that she was “being difficult,” the mother said in the video.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UAL | UNITED AIRLINES HOLDINGS INC. | 78.90 | -1.32 | -1.65% |
Sotomayor said she showed the documents to the captain, who continued to claim that her son’s medical equipment was a danger to other passengers and to her son, and that she was not following Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) guidelines.
“I was really upset by the way we were humiliated in front of others in the way we were talked to,” Sotomayor said. “The captain talked to me as if I was purposely endangering my son, and they were unwilling to listen to the fact that my son was dependent on this equipment to keep him alive.”
The flight finally took off more than an hour later, according to Sotomayor, who said she then contacted United about the ordeal.
“I have felt so disrespected by these airlines, well, United Airlines,” she said, “and I will never fly United again.”
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