SEATTLE -- A 3-year-old boy who refused to use his seatbelt never got off the ground when he and his father boarded an Alaska Airlines flight at an airport in Seattle.

The pilot returned to the gate at Sea-Tac Airport on Saturday and asked the father and the boy to get off.

Alaska Airlines says it was a matter of safety and the pilot would rather deal with it on the ground than in mid-flight.

The father, Mark Yanchak of Everett, told KIRO-FM the crew overreacted.

"He was crying, being cranky," Yanchak told the station. "I started putting him in his seat. I put his seatbelt on. But he was being cranky, trying to be close to me, so he wasn't fully fastened yet."