Singer, son kicked off plane after in-flight flap

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A Burlington singer says she and her two year-old son were removed from a SkyWest Airlines flight because the child was crying.

Sarah Blackwood, lead singer for Walk Off the Earth, was flying from San Francisco to Vancouver with her son and friend when they were told to leave the plane. “He was more fussy than usual on this flight, but that’s what happens.”

“He is a kid. He is going to cry. He is going to fuss. He is going to yell.”

“One of the flight attendants approached me and told me I needed to control my child because he was causing too much of a scene. I was holding him as best as I can. I am also seven months
pregnant and holding him the best I could. He was kind of squirming and crying really loud. Everybody around didn’t mind. They were fine with it. They were very sympathetic.”

“We taxied for about five to seven minutes and I knew he was going to fall asleep. I know my son. I knew he would eventually fall asleep and he did. He fell asleep.”

“They turned the plane around and got up to the gate and by the time we were at the gate my son was fully asleep and they sent a lady on the the plane to ask us to leave the plane.”

In a statement issued from SkyWest Airlines, the regional partner of United Express, it said “the crew made the difficult decision to remove Ms Blackwood and her child from the flight based solely on safety concerns.”

“Despite numerous requests, the child was not seated, as required by federal regulation to ensure passenger safety, and was repeatedly in the aisle of the aircraft before departure and during taxi.”

Sarah says she was sitting in an aisle seat and her son was not in the aisles at all. She says she wants to get the story out there so that it doesn’t happen to other families.

Kate Carnegie will have more of her interview with Sarah Blackwood tonight on the Evening News at 6.