Image copyright Twitter Image caption Ms Trump did not respond to the verbal attack, witnesses said

An airline has thrown a passenger off a flight after he accosted Ivanka Trump, the eldest daughter of President-elect Donald Trump, on a plane from New York.

"Your father is ruining the country," the man shouted as the aircraft prepared for departure from JFK airport in New York, a passenger told TMZ.com.

Witnesses said Ms Trump ignored the man and distracted her children with toys.

JetBlue airlines said in a statement that "the decision to remove a customer from a flight is not taken lightly".

"If the crew determines that a customer is causing conflict on the aircraft, the customer will be asked to deplane, especially if the crew feels the situation runs the risk of escalation during flight," it said.

Image copyright Reuters Image caption Ivanka Trump wed Jared Kushner in 2009

Shortly before the San Francisco-bound flight's departure, a New York university professor tweeted that mother-of-three Ms Trump and her husband Jared Kushner were aboard the plane "flying commercial".

"My husband chasing them down to harass them #banalityofevil," Matthew Lasner tweeted.

According to TMZ.com, Mr Lasner's partner, Dan Goldstein, shouted: "Why is she on our flight? She should be flying private."

But Mr Lasner, a professor at New York's Hunter College, tweeted that "my husband expressed displeasure in a calm tone, JetBlue staff overheard, and they kicked us off the plane".

JetBlue's statement added that its "team worked to re-accommodate the party on the next available flight".

A US Secret Service spokeswoman said its agents were with Ms Trump and her children on the flight.

Mr Trump's newly appointed White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, told Fox News: "To do that to a woman who was on there with her children, I don't care what your political background is or what your thoughts are, that's not the way we as Americans need to act."

The president-elect's daughter was heading via the West Coast to Hawaii for a family holiday, US media report.