Passenger: Airline said I'm 'too disabled' to fly alone

[Liberal_in_LA]

Passenger: Airline said I'm 'too disabled' to fly alone

(CNN) -- Seasoned business traveler Johnnie Tuitel, a motivational speaker who estimates he's flown a half a million miles, experienced a personal air travel first last month.

A US Airways employee told him he was "too disabled to fly" alone, Tuitel said.

Tuitel, who has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair, had already settled into his seat when the airline attendant who helped him onto the plane escorted him off and delivered this news.

"Their argument was if something were to happen, I can't help myself or somebody else, which is an assumption first of all. Second of all, the people that made the decision are not medical doctors," said Tuitel, 47, of East Grand Rapids, Michigan.

"They basically told me I was too disabled to fly and I had to fly with a companion and I had to purchase that companion's ticket," he told HLN's "Prime News."

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TRAVEL/10/15/usairways.disabled.flier/index.html?hpt=Sbin

The September 23 incident on a flight from West Palm Beach, Florida, to Kansas City, Missouri, is the only time Tuitel has been removed from a flight in his 20-year career, he said.

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. Roh-oh

So, how many kinds of disabled people can be banned from planes now?
limps badly,

deaf?

Blind?
Perhaps they will be giving out IQ tests ?
" Passengers with IQs below this line cannot enter plane"??

People who limp badly?
People on crutches?
How about Pregnant women?

I hope he sues their asses off.

[dkf]

3. I imagine the criteria is if they would be able to ambulate in case of an emergency landing.

Maybe they don't have enough staff to take care of extra people and need all passengers to be able to take care of themselves or have a person with them who can.

[pink-o]

5. Actually, no. I work for an airline...

Not US Airways, but another carrier. We put para-and quadra-palegics on planes all the time, as well as very large people who have motorized scooter wheelchairs but can't walk well on their own. This is a WTF moment, for sure. I can only think that the situation went like this:

We as ground staff board a plane and if someone looks like they may not be able to fly for any reason, we're trained to question that person as sensitively as possible. There's something called the Americans with Disabilities Act, which opens the air carrier up to a HUGE lawsuit if they deny a passenger on the basis of a physical challenge. This includes people who appear intoxicated--they might be on medication, and we have ways of engaging them to find out what's up before we keep them off a plane.

However, there are times when the Flight Attendants and Pilot Crew don't agree with us. And they have the last word. I know some amazing flight attendants who're very compassionate and make all our passengers feel comfortable. Then there are others who really can't deal with anyone who makes THEM feel uncomfortable. If they appeal to the pilot, and s/he says "This passenger cannot fly" we have no choice but to comply.

Don't know if this was one of those instances, but it sounds like it.

[dkf]

7. Even for getting out of a building for a fire drill we are instructed that people who are having

Difficulty removing themselves need a buddy. I'm surprised this isn't a requirement.

[pink-o]

8. If you sit in an Exit Row, you have to agree to be the "buddy".

One of the requirements of getting that extra leg room is to be able and willing to help others in the event of an emergency. Whether that would actually happen under those circumstances is a whole 'nother matter!

[dkf]

10. I didn't think you were agreeing to be a buddy, just to help open the damned door.

Wouldn't that just crowd things if you leave those people there though?

[pink-o]

12. Open the door AND assist other passengers.

That's usually the part of the lecture exit row occupiers tend to filter from their hearing! Most joke when you advise them: "sure, I'll open the door and I'll be the first one out." They assure me they're only kidding, but something tells me Not Really. Or maybe I'm just old any cynical. We can no more keep them from the exit row than we can deny Passengers with Disabilities.

[hlthe2b]

6. All those ski trip returnees on crutches are just S.O.L.?

Where did our common sense go? (and compassion?) Maybe we better concentrate on NOT having the plane crash and a little less time obsessed with what happens when it does? :eyes:

[blaze]

2. Maybe some good can come from this

From further in the linked article:

US Airways contacted him several weeks after the incident, offering to reimburse him for the flight, Tuitel said. He declined the offer. US Airways said it spoke with Tuitel on Friday about collaborating with the airline as it works to improve service for disabled passengers. Tuitel said the conversation was "very productive."

[RC]

4. US Airway had damn well reimburse him. They were the ones that tossed him off the plane

for no good reason. With all the handicapped accessible business have to adhere to, don't we have any laws covering this?

[activa8tr]

9. I smell personal and corporate lawsuits! But really, this is disgusting

Many able-bodied and ambulatory people render themselves unable to evacuate a plane by drinking, becoming hysterical, not thinking logically.

We should ban all Republican politicians from flying on airplanes. IMO

[iamtechus]

11. Flying becoming dangerous?

Forty some years ago when I first went to work for a major airline, the company spent gobs on advertising to convince a still-skeptical public that flying was a safe, comfortable way to travel. Now, apparently, flying has become such a harrowing experience that the handicapped must have a companion. *sigh*

[EFerrari]

13. How many times have we bailed out the airlines? n/t

[proud2BlibKansan]

14. +1