Dad kicked off flight with baby deemed too young to fly

A good Samaritan took a stranded man and his 4-day-old daughter into her Arizona home because Frontier Airlines officials said the infant was too young to fly, according to a new report.

The father, Rubin Swift, had recently flown from Ohio to Phoenix to pick up the baby, Ru-Andria, whom he had just gained custody of, AZFamily.com reported this week.

Swift told the outlet he had spoken with Frontier about what he needed to get the baby on the plane — including a birth certificate and a note from the hospital, Banner University Medical Center, saying she is clear to fly. Swift provided all of the documentation — but when he reached the gate at the airport, he wasn’t allowed onboard, according to the report.

“I asked for my money,” Swift told the outlet. “They said it would take seven days to get your money back.”

He didn’t have the money to stay at a hotel or rent a car to drive back to Ohio, but he did have a new friend to reach out to — Joy Ringhofer, a volunteer at the hospital’s NICU who had helped care for Ru-Andria. The two had connected right away, so Swift decided to give her a call.

“I didn’t expect her to say, ‘I’m coming to get you and take you home,'” Swift told the outlet. “So, I’m thinking, ‘She is going to drive me back to Cleveland’ but she actually brought me to her house and feeding me and making sure my baby is all right.”

Both father and daughter left Phoenix on Tuesday — but Swift and Ringhofer plan to keep in touch. Swift even began calling Ringhofer his daughter’s grandmother.

“We’re two different colors and she opened up her door and it never was an issue,” Swift told the station. “My color was never an issue. She loves my baby. She held her. My baby was with her all night. Who does that?”

Ringhofer told the station that it was her pleasure to play host.

“I had such a strong feeling that I needed to do this for him,” she said. “I know he was a kind and safe man to have in my home and he has been a perfect gentleman.”

Frontier Airlines told the site that its policy dictates that a child must be at least 7 days old to fly.

“To comply with Frontier policy regarding the age of traveling infants these passengers were rebooked on a Frontier flight department on March 20,” a statement from the airline said. “We also waived any change fees associated with this change so the passenger can travel in accordance with our policy.”