Australian actress Emilie De Ravin has taken to social media to demand that American Airlines “dismiss” one of their employees after an attendant used “physical force” to remove a breast-pump carry-on flight bag from her while boarding the plane.

De Ravin was flying with her five month old daughter Vera from Los Angeles on Thursday (September 1st) when she claims she was physically accosted by a flight attendant as she brought her breast-pump equipment on board.

The situation was eventually defused and she was allowed to keep it – as the law says she should – but she took to Twitter shortly afterwards to demand accountability.

Emilie De RavinEmilie De Ravin claims the attendant "ripped" the breast-pump bag from her

“Dear @AmericanAir I was grabbed forcefully, my carry on bag ripped out of my hand @ lax this morning by AA employee A. 3 witnesses,” the 34 year old actress wrote. “By and @AmericanAir female employee… Please kindly dismiss this woman from @americanair employment.”

The actress, whose credits include regular parts on ‘Lost’ and ‘Once Upon a Time’ and films such as The Hills Have Eyes and Public Enemies, said that the pilot on the flight stepped in to cool the situation down – but De Ravin was insistent that the attendant’s behaviour was inexcusable.

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“Luckily our pilot was very kind and helpful & apologetic on woman's behalf & assisted in getting her name & instructions on who to contact to report her.”

“However there is NO excuse 4 physical force being used on someone trying to take her breast pump carry on. NOT OK @AmericanAir #accountability,” she said, adding “apart from this incident and DISCUSTING [sic] woman, thank you for a smooth and safe flight.”

American Airlines released a short statement apologising for the incident to E! News a few hours after De Ravin had tweeted her anger at the situation.

“American Airlines is looking into the situation and apologizes to the customer for the inconvenience. Passengers are allowed to have two carry-on items. A breast pump is considered a medical device and should've been allowed on the plane, which eventually it was.”

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