An Arkansas woman says Spirit Airlines kicked her son and husband off a flight Monday because the four year old, who’s non-verbal with autism, wasn’t wearing a mask.
Spirit Airlines has come under fire for kicking an autistic boy and his dad off a flight from Las Vegas to Dallas because the four-year-old wasn’t wearing a mask.
Carter Kimball, who is non-verbal with autism, was left in tears crying on the ground of Las Vegas Airport Monday morning after being removed from the plane despite his mom saying they had a doctor’s note exempting him from wearing a mask.
The four-year-old was traveling home to Little Rock, with a stopover in Dallas, with his father Cameron and babysitter after they flew out to Las Vegas Friday to visit family.
Kimball told THV11 her husband and son boarded the plane Monday and showed the airline staff the medical note exempting Carter from its face covering mandate.
She said her son is ‘obsessed’ with planes but, due to his autism, he holds his breath or hurts himself if a mask is put on his face.
‘He had a medical note from his physician stating that he’s exempt from wearing masks because whenever he wears a mask he holds his breath or he starts freaking out and he will harm himself,’ Kimball said from their home in Little Rock where she was awaiting her family’s return.
Kimball said Spirit staff dismissed her son’s condition telling her husband it was ‘not a disability’ and that they would have to leave the plane if he didn’t put on a mask.
‘He has a disability. It’s protected under the American Disability Act and they go “No no no no. Autism’s not a disability. He has to wear a mask or he has to get off the plane,”‘ she said.
A spokesman for the airline told CBS News the only exemption to its current mask policy, implemented in May, is children younger than 2 years old.
