United Airlines just gave a traveler a major apology
The passenger's viral social media video was viewed by more than a million people.
At over 35,000 feet above the ground, any number of situations with potential to go social media viral will periodically unfold.
Fellow travelers will often stick up for passengers who are asked to switch seats or shamed for breastfeeding. In the summer of 2024, American Airlines (AAL) ended up having to apologize after 24-year-old TikToker Erin Wright described being falsely accused and banned from flying over a "mile high club" incident of which she had no knowledge (her name was eventually cleared).
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Passenger recounts: 'My son is medically complex'
The latest instance of an airline having to apologize occurred on United Airlines 1349 flight (UAL) between Tampa and Newark, N.J. on March 8.
In a now-viral TikTok video that garnered over one million views and 180,000 upvotes, Melissa Sotomayor described feeling "humiliated" when flight attendants repeatedly told her to remove her 21-month-old son's ventilator before and during the flight.
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"My son is medically complex," Sotomayor described in the video. "He is dependent upon a trach and ventilator. He has vision problems, and he has hearing problems. He also has a g tube [a medical instrument that provides a person with nutrition through an incision in the stomach]."
Sotomayor said that she collected and presented all documentation showing that her son needs the ventilator for his health but kept getting approached by different flight attendants who accused her of refusing to comply with instructions — a process that she said left her traumatized as she had to repeatedly explain and argue that what the flight attendants were requesting would kill her son.
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'I explained that I could not take them off because they are keeping my son alive'
"Once we got seated a male flight attendant approached me and said that I needed to take my son off of the ventilator and the portable oxygen concentrator because they needed to be secure for takeoff," Sotomayor recounted. "I explained to him that I could not take them off of these pieces of equipment because they are keeping him alive."
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After the video calling upon travelers to not fly with United started going viral, a spokesperson said that the airline had contacted Sotomayor to "address her concerns" and "apologize for any frustrations she may have experienced."
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