Melissa Sotomayor, a mother from New Jersey, recently went viral for her distressing experience flying with United Airlines. Within days, the video did go viral, surpassing 1.3 million views in record time. The emergency was her then almost-two-year-old son, Noah. He is “medically complex,” needing a breathing tube, ventilator, and other medical devices to live.
What happened went down on an intimate Tampa to Newark flight. Sotomayor explained that as she boarded the plane, a specific male flight attendant came up to her and asked what I think was a pretty scary question. He was adamant that she take Noah off his ventilator and portable oxygen concentrator. This procedural step would make sure all was locked and loaded for takeoff.
Sotomayor was taken aback by this demand. She explained to the attendant that removing Noah from his equipment was not an option, stating, “I explained to him that I could not take my son off of those pieces of equipment because they are keeping him alive.” Even with her reassurance and medical clearance paperwork from multiple doctors that Noah was okay to fly, the story took a turn when the Captain got involved.
The captain walks up to me and says, “Your son should not be flying like this, it’s unsafe for him. Just look at him! Sotomayor recounted. She felt compelled to defend her son’s medical condition, asserting, “I said, ‘there is no problem. My son is medically cleared’… I have fought for my son’s life, his entire life, and I am still doing so.”
Given that she had flown with United Airlines without complaint before this incident, the whole episode was even more puzzling. She opened up about that anger in her TikTok video, highlighting her concerns at the way her son was treated. “The way you treated my son when we were attempting to fly home from Tampa to Newark was absolutely ridiculous,” she stated.
The flight eventually arrived in Newark almost an hour late. United Airlines has been absolutely slaughtered by social media. They have yet to answer many of the basic questions, including whether any consideration was provided to Sotomayor for the terror she suffered aboard the flight.
In a statement following the incident, United Airlines has apologized to Sotomayor. It’s not clear what steps beyond this or what punitive or restorative actions are being planned.
