Two sisters said they were kicked off an Allegiant Air flight Monday after arguing with a flight attendant. The sisters, who said they were trying to reach their dying father in North Carolina, were escorted off the plane after the airline claimed they were “a threat,” WKMG reported. Debbie Hartman and Trisha Baker were traveling from Sanford, Florida, to Asheville, North Carolina to visit their father, who was in hospice care. While the plane was waiting to leave, Baker said she received a text message that said her father only had hours to live.
"I didn't know if my sister was getting the same text and (I) was I thinking, 'I need to go back and tell her,'" Baker told WKMG.
Baker said when she got up to tell her sister, a flight attendant stepped in.
“She said, ‘You need to sit down,’ and I said, ‘Well, can I just sit here? I just want to console my sister. We just got word that my dad’s dying,’” Baker told WKMG.
Hartman said she started having a panic attack and Baker confronted the flight attendant for not being compassionate.
"(My sister) said (to the flight attendant), 'You're being very rude. My father is dying, and I'm comforting her,' and they said she needed to keep her personal problems off the plane," Hartman said.
Minutes later, the sisters said, the flight attendant called the captain, the plane turned around and airport security escorted them off the flight.
"{They told us we were a threat to the flight. I couldn't believe it," Hartman said. "People were like 'what's going on?'"
Some passengers even took to YouTube and complained about the situation.
"That was the most inhumane, deplorable thing I’ve ever seen any human being do," one woman said.
For the sisters, they tried to take another flight the next day but it was too late.
"I got a call that he passed," Hartman said.
Hartman said she wants the airline to be held accountable.
"I would like to see them in some way be punished in a way where people understand. This is not humane. One hundred thousand percent I blame them. They were the gate between keeping me from my father to say goodbye," Hartman said.
Allegiant Air said it is investigating the incident. In a statement, the airline said: "We rely on our crew members to provide and oversee a safe environment for every passenger, on every flight. We expect that authority to be exercised both judiciously and consistently, with empathy and with good judgment."