Seattle mom said she was humiliated over dirty diaper experience on flight

SEATTLE — A Seattle woman said she was harassed and threatened by a flight attendant over her child’s dirty diaper on her flight.

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Farah Naz Khan told KIRO-TV that she was going from Montana to Houston on a Mesa Airlines flight when she had to change her daughter’s diapers during the flight on Friday.

“On the flight, my daughter pooped, as babies do,” Khan told KIRO-TV.

Khan said she changed her daughter’s diaper, placed the dirty one into a scented diaper disposal bag and then threw it away in the lavatory trash can in the back of the aircraft. Having done this several times, she believed she had disposed of it properly.

“The flight attendant in the (front) started yelling, ‘Did you just throw away a diaper in the back? You can’t do that, it’s a biohazard!’” Khan said, reiterating what the flight attendant in her section had told her.

Khan said the flight attendant continued to “yell at” and humiliate her. The mother explained that the flight attendant made her dig the dirty diaper out of the garbage. She described it as one of her life’s most humiliating and degrading experiences.

Khan asked the other flight attendant on board for a garbage bag so she could keep the soiled diaper at her feet for the remainder of the flight, ultimately disposing of it in the terminal.

Khan filed a customer service complaint with United, Mesa Airline’s codeshare partner, while they were still in the terminal and thought “that would be it.” She later received three calls from an unidentified 1-800 phone number.

“When I picked up, it was the same flight attendant saying I had been placed on the ‘do not fly list’ because of a biohazard incident,” said Khan.

Having already filed a formal complaint with the airline, Khan launched a social media campaign, explaining the situation.

Khan said the airline later contacted her saying they were going to “escalate this within the proper channels.” She did not hear from the airline again until Sunday.

Khan said she is now seeking legal recourse and has filed a report with the FAA.

Khan was able to board her return flight from Houston to Seattle on Monday.

Mesa Air Group returned KIRO-TV′s request for comment on July 13 stating, “The details as described by our customer do not meet the high standards that Mesa sets for our flight attendants and we are reviewing the matter.”

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