UNITED Airlines has been forced to apologise to a family after a father travelling with his son was accused of laying his arm “too close to the child’s genitalia” as he slept.

The man, Henry Amador-Batten, his husband Joel and their five-year-old son were arriving at an airport in their home state of North Carolina after visiting Puerto Rico.

3 Henry Amador-Batten, right, with husband Joel, left, and their son Credit: Facebook / DADsquared

Recapping the incident on his Facebook group for gay dads, DADsquared, Joel said the family were stopped by authorities as they got off the plane.

Henry was then detained for questioning because a crew member accused him of laying his arm across his sleeping son’s lap, Joel said.

"My husband was detained after disembarking ... because a member of the flight crew made an accusation that my husband’s hand/arm laying across my sleeping son’s lap was too close to the ‘child’s genitalia’," he wrote.

3 The 53-year-old has spoken out about the experience, slamming the airline Credit: Facebook / DADsquared

ADMIN JOEL HERE... Tonight my husband was detained after disembarking a United flight to RDU because a member of the... Posted by DADSquaredLife on Friday, May 19, 2017

He said Henry was made to feel "like a criminal" in front of other passengers and was detained by about an hour to be questioned by authorities.

Joel said: "This is not how anyone deserves to be treated.

"This is not something that should have happened in front of my son.

"This is not something that anyone should have to worry about happening to them on a flight just because someone might not like the looks of them."

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Joel said he and Henry were foster parents and were in the process of adopting their second son.

He said: "This misguided [flight attendant’s] assumptions about my husband and the accusations that he made are completely unfounded and we plan on getting up bright and early in the morning to make as much f***ing noise about this as I possibly can.

Joel added: “This is the icing on the cake for a man who has spent nearly the last two weeks in Puerto Rico dealing with his father’s quick decline and subsequent death.”

3 The dad blogged about his experiences and has since received an apology Credit: Facebook / DADsquared

The couple since announced they would "not keep quiet" and would continue to speak out about the issue.

Since the story went public, United Airlines has issued an apology to the couple.

United spokesman Jonathan Guerin said in an email, published by The News & Observer: "Our customers should always be treated with the utmost respect.

“We have followed up with the customer directly and we apologised for the situation.”

The couple are said to be seeking “fair compensation” over the incident.

The family’s ordeal is the latest in a string of incidents involving parents wrongly accused of in appropriate behaviour with their children.

Also in April, a father was accused of paedophilia when he checked into a hotel with his 13-year-old daughter.

United Airlines recently faced a PR disaster after a valuable giant rabbit died on one of its planes.

The airline had previously apologised for throwing a passenger off a flight, allegedly because he had filmed a row with staff.

A version of this story originally appeared on News.com.au