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They cancelled the flight and the airline paid for a bus to transport the passengers to their destination. This whole thing sound strange. I am expecting to see cell phone videos popping up. Maybe then we can see what really happened.
It was on Piedmont Airlines which is owned by USAir. It was a Dash 8 turboprop aircraft. The back row seats 5 across, the middle seat is in the aisle. The passenger should have been moved one seat right or left and his dog allowed under the seat in front of him. If the flight wasn't full, they could have easily given him the back row to himself so the dog could have more room.
I've flown with service dogs numerous times and they have always been very well behaved. But yes, they must stay under the seat.
It pretty much looks like the flight attendant effed it up, the captain didn't help, and the airline is taking a rather well-deserved beating in the media (all media, social, mainstream, etc). There were 4 empty seats on the flight and despite the open seats, apparently the flight attendant didn't do anything to try to mitigate the situation or help the blind man, other than to take on the typical "sky bully" role and start threatening, which is pretty typical anyway.
US airways has basically gone silent about the whole thing after posting a poorly worded "two sides to every story" response to the incident which essentially claimed that the crew is always right. Unfortunately, the passenger was apparently seated in seat 9D of a Dash 8, which is in the middle of the aisle, with no under seat space where a service animal could go. Because of this the animal had to be placed under a neighbor's seat, which caused problems after a prolonged taxi wherein the dog became restless and rearranged itself under the owner's legs.
It's not the law which is being questioned, but the way that the airline handled the situation looks to have been worse than pathetic. The flight attendant could have probably done more, and the captain could have probably mitigated the whole situation by suggesting that the FA re-seat a couple of people. Since there were 33 passengers on a 37 seat plane, that means there were 4 empty seats. This means that the likelihood of the passenger being able to get a seat for himself and a vacant seat next to him for the dog to take up foot space, would have been good.
How hard could it have been for the captain to just make a cabin announcement explaining the problem and asking for a few people to switch spaces so that everyone (crew included) could happily go off to their destination? When so many paying customers, most with separate schedules and agendas, object to a common situation and the handling thereof, it's most likely not the passenger's problem, but the way that the airline handled it. Or in this case, didn't handle it.
[quote=irman;32254067.
So ... how do you compare Air Jamaica with US Airways ?[/QUOTE]
I have flown both and would take US Airways over Air Jamaica. I am not sure AJ even has any flights any more. They did serve Champagne and served free meals after others stopped but they had a lot of problems and service certainly declined.
I've worked in the Caribbean for sometime. Air Jamaica still operates from a number of major gateways in the US gateways. AJ was purchased by Carribean Airlines (a Trinidad and Tobago company)
There's definitely a grey area that isn't being reported here.
There is no requirement for a service animal to fit under a seat as that simply isn't practical for large dogs. The Air Carrier Access Act is the federal regulation that applies in this case (the ADA doesn't apply to airlines). A service animal should be accommodated at the "seat location" of the passenger. This generally means on the floor by the passengers legs.
The article in the OP mentions that the dog was lying in the aisle and the FA told the owner it had to be moved, which is indeed correct as the aircraft can't legally take off with an obstruction in the aisle.
It becomes a he said-she said situation after that. Did the FA act like a jerk and act inappropriately towards the passenger? Beats me, maybe. Did the passenger see this as an opportunity to cause a scene, possibly get a little media attention and hopefully some free flights? Beats me, maybe.
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So you never flew on Air Jamaica??
