Breast-feeding Houston mom says she was kicked off Spirit Airlines flight

A Spirit Airlines Airbus jet taxis at Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston in late April 2017. A Spirit Airlines Airbus jet taxis at Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston in late April 2017. Photo: Bill Montgomery Photo: Bill Montgomery Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Breast-feeding Houston mom says she was kicked off Spirit Airlines flight 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

The flight was already shaping up as a headache, and the plane had not even left the ground.

Mei Rui, a concert pianist and a cancer researcher, was supposed to catch a Spirit Airlines flight from her home in Houston to Newark, N.J., on Friday. The trip was for a recording connected with a clinical cancer study in New York City. Rui's elderly mother and father were along for the ride, as was her 2-year-old son.

But the 6:30 a.m. flight was delayed due to weather, she said, a fact confirmed by flight data. When it finally seemed like the jet was ready to go, she began breast-feeding her son, hoping it would put him to sleep - and keep him from crying - on the three-hour ride.

According to Rui, the plane's door was still open and people were moving about the cabin. A few flight attendants walked by without saying anything. Then one approached Rui and said her baby had to be in his seat for takeoff.

"I asked for just a couple more minutes to finish because if he woke up at that point he would have made a lot of noise," Rui said. "I said, 'I promise I'll finish before you close the plane's door.' "

The attendants conferred at the front of the plane. Rui stopped feeding her son, and as she predicted, the baby began crying. That was when the crew instructed Rui she needed to get off the plane, she said. Rui asked why she was being ousted if the baby was strapped in.

"It's not like I was resistant, I put him in the seat," she said.

"Because you were not compliant," an airline official reportedly told her.

In a statement to Houston's KHOU, Spirit stood by the decision to take Rui and her family off the plane.

"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," Spirit said.

The Spirit run-in was another blow in a tough year, Rui said. Her family lost their house and possessions (including her piano) in Hurricane Harvey, she said.