Jet Blue
© Mike Blake / Reuters
JetBlue Airways caused birthday tears for a family that say they were kicked off a Las Vegas bound flight because of a staff dispute over the storage of their celebratory cake.

Minta and Cameron Burke from New Jersey were traveling from JFK Airport in New York to Las Vegas, Nevada with their young children to celebrate Minta's 40th birthday.

"We were just so happy. Couldn't wait to get to Las Vegas, and all of a sudden this occurred, and my two children are screaming, crying. They're confused not knowing what's going on - they were traumatized," Minta told ABC.

The trouble arose when the family brought a birthday cake as part of their carry-on luggage and stowed it in an overhead compartment. A flight attendant asked them to move the cake, first to another overhead bin, and then under a seat.


"She then asked me to move it to underneath the seat in front of me, I did," Cameron explained to the New York Daily News.

However, things started to get a little strange when a second flight attendant criticized the first and accused the Burke family of being non-compliant.

The situation then escalated when yet another airline employee approached the family and asked them to leave the flight and the Burke's young children, aged seven and nine, began to cry.

Port Authority officers were then called to the plane. A video recorded by Cameron Burke shows the officer clearly saying: "I don't see any wrong doing... No one's in any trouble... no one did anything wrong."


However, ominously, the officer also says "unfortunately they're [the airline] going to have to rebook everyone."

JetBlue then asked everyone on the flight to leave the plane in order to get the family off. The family's tickets and reward points were refunded.

The airline insists that the family was at fault. They allege that the Burkes placed the birthday cake in a compartment designated for emergency and safety equipment and then refused to move it when they were asked to do so.

"[The customer] refused multiple requests from the crew to remove the items... became agitated, cursed and yelled at the crew, and made false accusations about a crewmember's fitness to fly," the airline said in a statement to the media.

The family flew to Las Vegas the next day on a United Airlines Flight. Cameron Burke said he intends to file a lawsuit against JetBlue and is calling for the flight attendant involved to be fired.