Houston mother kicked off flight questions why

HOUSTON (FOX 26) - Beautiful notes all memorized by heart fill the home of a woman who says she has been through quite a bit in the past few days. Mei is a clinical researcher, a concert pianist of more than 30 years and a mother, who says Friday morning she was kicked off a flight. She was on her way to New York City to record music for a new research study.

Mei says she, her parents and her 2-year-old son had been sitting on Spirit Airlines flight 712 for more than 2.5 hours. It was the morning Houston got snow and the plane had to de-ice. She says, "he was quiet for the first 2.5 hours on the plane. He was a good baby and nobody even knew he was there.

After sitting in their seats for hours, Mei decided to breast feed her baby. A flight attendant walked past and told her he needed to be buckled.

"So first she said basically I need to strap him in his seat now and I said just give me a couple of more minutes, the door or your gate is still open, the plane door is still open, I promise you, for his own safety, I will put him in his seat. I knew that once he was in a deeper sleep I could move him without any fuss," says Mei.

The flight attendant allegedly brought another coworker over to ask Mei again to move him to his seat. When Mei said she would in just a few minutes, when he was fully asleep, they contacted the captain.

"He was completely strapped in safely, buckled in his seat and she kept asking me, are you sure he will stay there and I said I assure you I will keep him there," says Mei.

She says a few minutes later an announcement was made for everyone to de-board the plane and then, she was told she would not be allowed back on.

Spirit Airlines sent us a statement that says:

Our records indicate a passenger was removed from flight 712 after refusing to comply with crew instructions several times during taxi to runway and safety briefing...We apologize for any inconvenience to our guests. As a courtesy, we've issued a full refund to the passenger in question.

Mei says her son has flown internationally more than 30 times and that he is very well behaved. She believes that part of the reason they were kicked off was because he wasn't buckled, but also because she was breast feeding.