Family kicked off Virgin flight after 3-year-old with motion sickness vomits

Virgin America staff kicked a Newport Beach, California, family off a flight over the weekend after one of the children, who was experiencing motion sickness, vomited on the aircraft.

What are the details of the incident?

Yvette Kohan spoke to KCBS-TV about her experience with Virgin America.

According to Kohan, the family was leaving Maui to travel home to the Los Angeles area. Kohan told KCBS that her 3-year-old son began experiencing motion sickness during the car ride to the Maui airport. Shortly after the family boarded the plane, Kohan said that her son began to get sick and vomited on the plane.

"As I’m walking out out the bathroom to hand [my son] to my husband so I could clean myself up, my husband said, 'Come on. We have to go. They’re kicking us off the plane,'" Kohan explained.

Kohan said that a flight attendant aboard the aircraft had no compassion for her situation.

"She was very rude. No compassion. No empathy," Kohan said. "I was trying to clean [my son] up and she was rolling her eyes and wondering why I let him get sick on the floor as if that was purposeful."

According to Kohan, they were asked to leave the flight because of her son's sickness.

"How does someone throwing up automatically mean they get off the plane?" Kohan asked. "What if I was pregnant and I was having morning sickness and I threw up? Would you kick me off the flight?"

"They said yes by the way," she added. "And I asked them if a small child had been feeding on a bottle and reflux and if they threw up. Would they kick them off? And they said yes they would. I don’t believe that."

Kohan noted that she was told her son would have to receive a "fit to fly" certificate from a physician prior to being allowed to fly on Virgin America.

After the Kohans left the airport, they went to a nearby emergency room to have their son checked out. The Kohans' son was then cleared to fly.

According to KCBS, the Kohans ended up flying United Airlines from Maui to Los Angeles. The outlet added that the family was reimbursed for their tickets, and were offered an additional $800 — which the Kohans refused.

Did Virgin address the incident?

In a statement to KCBS, a spokesperson for Virgin said:

Per standard process in the event of a guest medical event, the flight crew on Virgin America Flight 1122 contacted Medlink and they determined that the child needed to be symptom free for two hours before flying. The family was not able to depart on their original flight but were able rebook when their child was feeling better and was symptom free. We take the safety of our guests very seriously and acted out of an abundance of caution.