Singapore-owned Scoot allegedly refuses to fly special needs child and demands that her parents deplane

Low-cost long-haul airline Scoot allegedly refused to fly a special needs child and demanded that the child and her parents deplane, before a flight was scheduled to take off this morning.

The five-year-old girl’s mother, Divya George, posted online that the captain of the Singapore-owned airline caused the commotion after he refused to allow the child to fly with an infant seat belt. Although Divya’s daughter is five, she only weighs 8.5 kilograms and is the size of a 1-year-old child.

Divya garnered immense support when she shared about her situation on social media earlier today. She wrote: “Our flight that was to take off at 7:35am has been delayed by an hour so far because they refuse to fly with my special needs child. They want to deplane us because they refuse to take her.”

In a subsequent post this afternoon, Divya updated that she is “saddened beyond words” over the incident and revealed that the captain callously said that it is not his problem if her child slides off her seat and hurts herself during the flight:

“For those of you waiting for an update….. our daughter has ALWAYS HAD HER OWN SEAT. This is how the Capt wanted my daughter to fly. 

“Our request for using an infant seat belt was denied as she’s a child with her own seat. (While she’s 5 years old she weighs 8.5 kgs and is the size of a 1 year old) The Capt sited safety reasons for his inability to let us fly while holding her on our lap with an infant seat belt. He refused to come out and speak to us for an hour and had SAT tell us we could either deboard or leave our daughter on her own seat.

“Finally when we did speak to him – On mentioning she could hurt herself and will slide off the seat he said “then it’s the airlines lookout.” Shame !!! Saddened beyond words.”

Divya’s posts come just one day after another Singapore-owned airline came under fire for a commotion on board a flight to Kolkata, India.

According to a passenger in that case, Singapore Airlines allegedly threatened to call the police to arrest passengers after a lengthy delay on a faulty aircraft caused passengers to become sick:

https://theindependent.sg.sg/sia-threatens-to-call-police-to-arrest-passengers-after-delay-on-faulty-aircraft-causes-passengers-to-become-sick/

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UPDATE: Scoot has since reached out to The Independent with a clarification. A Scoot spokesperson shared with us in a statement that the airline has arranged to provide the five-year-old with a certified booster seat during her return trip, given the special circumstances:

“Infant seat belts are available for guests up to two years old as part of safety regulations. As the passenger is five years old, for her safety consideration, infant seat belts may not suffice. She has to be strapped to her own seat with the aircraft seatbelt for take-off and landing in accordance with established cabin safety procedures.

“Scoot recognises however that the guest’s physical condition may require additional consideration for comfort. Accordingly, we have made a one-time arrangement to provide a certified booster seat for the guest to ensure her return journey is more comfortable while still adhering to cabin safety procedures.

“We have reached out to the guest to explain the arrangements that have been made.”