Flight attendants call police on unruly children

The crew of a Skywest-operated Alaska Airlines plane asked Port of Portland police to meet their incoming flight from Long Beach, Calif., after two unruly children refused to stay in their seats and buckle their seat belts on Tuesday (March 27).

Airline spokeswoman Marianne Lindsey told Northwest Cable News (NWCN) that the flight crew tried repeatedly to get the children -- aged 3 and 8 and traveling with their parents – to stay in their seats, and that the pilot radioed ahead and asked for authorities to meet the plane when it touched down at Portland International Airport. Ms. Lindsey also told NWCN that when the plane pulled up to the gate, the family was first off the plane and met by Port of Portland authorities. They were not charged with any crime.

Lindsey says port police talked with the family and an Alaska Airlines supervisor then talked to the family about the need to comply with federal air regulations that children must remain buckled in their seats for safety.

The spokeswoman says the supervisor then escorted the family to make their connecting Alaska Airlines flight from Portland to Seattle. Lindsey says that flight was uneventful.

She declined to release any additional information about the family, citing privacy concerns.

In February,  a family with a 2-year-old who threw a tantrum over being seated with a seat belt was removed from a Jet Blue plane for delaying a flight from the Turks and Caicos islands to Boston.