A Canadian family says they were booted off their Paris-bound flight over fellow fliers’ fears that their coughing toddler could have the coronavirus, according to reports.
Emmanuel Faug, wife Clementine Ferraton and their three children had just boarded their flight in Quebec City on Sunday when their 21-month-old daughter, Lila, had a coughing fit, reported The Daily Mail, citing French-language outlet Ouest-France.
The tot’s affliction caught the attention of other passengers aboard the Air Transat flight, who complained to the crew, according to the reports.
Ferraton assured a flight attendant that her daughter just had a common cold and had been medically cleared to fly, but the attendant balked when the family was unable to produce written documentation of the diagnosis, the reports said.
A doctor aboard the plane volunteered to examine the child and also concluded that Lila was fit to fly, but the crew still wasn’t convinced.
The captain asked Medlink, a company specializing in aviation medical issues, to weigh in, and was advised to eject the family from the flight, according to The Mirror.
“After analysing the situation, MedLink determined that the passenger’s medical condition posed a significant potential risk to passengers and crew during the flight,” an Air Transat spokesman told The Mirror.
The statement did not specifically mention coronavirus — which has infected more than 82,000 people across 50 countries since its December outbreak in Wuhan, China — but Faug said that the flight’s chief steward mentioned the “current context,” in what he read as an allusion to the contagion.
“I think that’s where his fears came from,” Faug told French outlet TVA Nouvelles, according to The Daily Mail. “I can understand it in a way, but I found it a bit excessive.
“I feel like I was kicked out of a plane to avoid a scandal.”