A family en route to a birthday celebration in Las Vegas this month said they were booted from a JetBlue flight over where to store a cake they had brought on board — even after, they said, they complied with instructions to move the cake to the floor.

The airline confirmed the incident occurred May 3 aboard JetBlue Flight 611 before takeoff from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. However, it is disputing the passengers' account, saying their removal was justified because their "behavior demonstrated a risk for additional escalation in air."

The couple, identified as Cameron and Minta Burke of New Jersey, told the New York Daily News that the trip to Las Vegas had been arranged as a surprise for Minta's 40th birthday.

Cameron Burke told the Daily News that they first put the cake in an overhead bin, but a flight attendant "nicely" asked them to remove it. So he moved it to another one, he said.

"She then asked me to move it to underneath the seat in front of me," Cameron Burke told the newspaper. "I did."

At this point, he said, a second flight attendant intervened and began accosting the first flight attendant.

"She was pointing to her, 'Did you tell him he couldn't put anything in the overhead compartment?' " Cameron Burke told ABC7 News. "I had approached them, and I said everything was fine, and she said, 'Sir, this does not involve you.' When she told me I had been noncompliant, then I said 'Ma'am, had you been drinking?' Because her behavior was not normal."

JetBlue said in a statement that "the customers became agitated, cursed and yelled at the crew, and made false accusations about a crew member's fitness to fly." They also "refused to speak with a team leader about the situation," the airline said.

Shortly afterward, the Port Authority Police Department was called in and the entire aircraft made to deplane, according to the JetBlue statement.