Muslim family kicked off flight for safety issue'

Washington: An Arab-American woman has accused United Airlines for "profiling" her family after its staff kicked them off a flight "for no reason", in a repeat of a similar incident last year when hundreds of people pledged to boycott the carrier over alleged discrimination.

Eaman-Amy Saad Shebley, her husband and their three young kids were told they had to get off the flight from a Chicago airport to Washington DC on March 20, because of a "safety of flight issue," the New York Daily News reported.

She posted a video of her interactions with the crew on Facebook, and said "Shame on you #unitedAirlines for profiling my family and me for no reason other than how we look." She said the incident started when she asked a flight attendant on the American airliner about a harness for her child's safety seat, and the video shows a flight attendant asking her "what's going on?", the report said.

Saad Shebley says before a man who appears to be the pilot comes and decides to kick her and her family off the aircraft. Her video has been viewed more than 1,500,000 times and shared on Facebook more than 30,000.

United Airlines said in a statement to WDIV that the family was removed from the planet "because of concerns about their child's safety seat, which did not comply with federal safety regulations," and that they were put on a later flight.

However, the family filed a complaint with the Council on American-Islamic Relations about the matter. CAIR's Dawud Walid said, "Unfortunately there's a growing problem on airlines of Muslims being removed from flights when they cause no reasonable security concerns."

The incident was a repeat of a similar incident in May last year when a Muslim passenger alleged discrimination by United Airlines due to 'Islamophobia.'

The Muslim chaplain at Chicago's Northwestern University had claimed that when she asked for an unopened can of soda for hygienic reasons she was told, "Well, I'm sorry. I just can't give you an unopened can, so no Diet Coke for you."

When the man next to her allegedly got an unopened beer can from the in-flight service, the passenger said she was told something even more inflammatory.

Hundreds of social media users had said then that they would boycott United Airlines based on what they interpreted as open discrimination.