Sisters Trying to Visit Dying Father Kicked Off Flight

Two sisters say their father died without them by his side because they were kicked off an Allegiant Air flight Monday in Florida, WKMG reports. Trisha Baker and Debbie Hartman were waiting for takeoff when Baker received a text about their father, who was in hospice in North Carolina. The text said their father had just hours to live. But when Baker stood up to share the news with her sister, she says a flight attendant told her to sit down. While Baker confronted the flight attendant, Hartman says she started having a panic attack. Hartman says the flight attendant told her sister "she needed to keep her personal problems off the plane."

The sisters say the flight attendant alerted the captain, who returned to the gate, and security removed them from the plane. Another passenger, who filmed the incident, says it was the "most inhumane, deplorable thing I've ever seen any human being do." Hartman says her father died a short time later, and she wants Allegiant Air "punished." "I just wanted to see my dad," she says. Allegiant Air says it's investigating the incident. (More Allegiant Airlines stories.)