Family Suing Alaska Airlines

[Mathguy]

Originally Posted by Mikala43

And what would have happened if they insisted on helping her (despite her wishes) and she starting yelling for help?!!

These are not decisions for strangers at airports to be making, they are not medical professionals. An adult traveling alone told them to leave her be, and they did.

Yep. Alternative thread title could easily be "Family Sues Alaska Airlines for assaulting 75yo grandmother in a wheel chair". "I told them to leave me alone but they detained me and wouldn't let me leave on my own."

I'll let the jury sort this one out.

[Mikala43]

Originally Posted by bpollen

I think you missed the part that there's a LAW governing the airline's responsibility for the disabled. She was elderly and in a wheelchair.

Period. Although the family was partially to blame by not filling out the forms correctly. But the airline woman who sent her packing across the airport alone certainly didn't look up and review any form.

The airline is on the hook for htis one, possibly mitigated by the family's negligence in alerting the airline to the woman's disabilities, besides the obvious wheelchair.

What law?

[headingtoDenver]

Originally Posted by suzy_q2010

Here are the Department of Transportation rules concerning disabled passengers.

Although assistance with making connections is required, I see nothing that says, "even if the passenger refuses assistance".

https://www.transportation.gov/airco...s-disabilities

Should the airline be required to accompany every elderly passenger in a wheelchair to a connecting gate and wait with that passenger until he is on the next flight, on the assumption that every such person has dementia?

I must be reading this differently. I took this article to mean that if they are asked, they are required to provide assistance. In other words, they cannot deny a passenger assistance if they ask. I thought this mainly because how do they know someone has a disability besides physically seeing a wheelchair.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by headingtoDenver

I must be reading this differently. I took this article to mean that if they are asked, they are required to provide assistance. In other words, they cannot deny a passenger assistance if they ask. I thought this mainly because how do they know someone has a disability besides physically seeing a wheelchair.

This raises an interesting point. What if the family requested the assistance, KNOWING their elderly oved one tends to get disoriented, but upon arrival, the elderly loved one prone to getting disoriented declined the service that the family had requested precisely in order to keep her safe?

Then what? I suppose if the family knew from experience that she deems herself to be self-sufficient, they should have accompanied her, themselves. They didn't expect her to decline the service, nor did they expect the service providers to respond to HER orders, and not the family's box-checked request on the ticket form.

Tricky situation. This really gets to the heart of the matter.

[HighFlyingBird]

Originally Posted by Mathguy

Yep. Alternative thread title could easily be "Family Sues Alaska Airlines for assaulting 75yo grandmother in a wheel chair". "I told them to leave me alone but they detained me and wouldn't let me leave on my own."

I'll let the jury sort this one out.

Forcing assistance on a person who used a w/c could very well be against the law in some situations. If the person was moved, held down, blocked it would be a criminal matter. I wouldn't say the people handling transports of disabled people are well trained, but I am sure they know better then to illegally detain a person based on them having a disability.

Alas, there are so many holes in this story its hard to near impossible to figure out what actually happened in this case.

[Soccernerd]

I agree with a PP. There is plenty of blame to go around. The family will likely receive some compensation, but if the woman refused service, what is Alaska Airlines and the contractor supposed to do? If they forced her to receive their help, then people would be mad about that.

I hope that this is a wake up for how airlines (or any company or organization for that matter) interact with people with disabilities.

[Minervah]

I wasn’t there so I can’t say what really happened here. I will say something about what I do know.

There was a time when I needed wheelchair assistance at the airport. I would say I have taken at least six round trips and they were all with Alaska Airlines. The wheelchair attendants were awesome. Each time on the way to the waiting area they would ask if I wanted to stop to get something to eat or go to the restroom. After they left me at the gate they made sure I was okay. They wheeled me right up front by the desk.

Deplaning was the same. Someone with a chair would be waiting at the gate. They would take me to baggage or wherever else I needed to go.

Based on my own experience in this type of situation, I would not be too quick to blame the airlines. Their service is great but they are not nurses or trained medical people. If you tell them “l’ll take it from here” they’ll say, “Okay.” Maybe that’s what happened and why she may have been left alone. But if that was the case I don’t believe there was any negligence on the part of the airline. It’s just going to be up to a court to sort it out.

[Alonso Gil]

Wheelchair assistance, or any assistance for that matter, isn't prisoner transport. The person being transported can deny the service if they so choose (except unaccompanied minors). It's in the article... she didn't want the support she was offered. The contractor does not have to assert themselves - they have to offer a service, and it is absolutely ridiculous to suggest that they did something wrong in following the wishes of this woman. She took an escalator she wasn't supposed to go on, and the airline isn't your personal caretaker, and assistance services aren't there to stop demented people from walking off into the night.

Alaska Airlines cannot stop you from walking down an escalator any more than it can stop you from jumping off a cliff. Reasonable expectations are a key element of this, and the family should absolutely blame themselves, as it is totally and without exception their fault she is dead.

[Minervah]

Originally Posted by germaine2626

My son recently made plane reservations for me on-line. He is a well educated (multiple college degrees), mature man who flies fairly often and he could not figure out how to request wheelchair assistance (I have physical challenges) for me while making the reservations on-line. So at this point, "no boxes were checked" for me either in the reservation unless customer service adds them when he/we call about the wheelchair assistance. But, the big difference is that I am not elderly, and not cognitively impaired, so I can speak for myself at the airport if there are problems.

Well I am a college graduate too but I didn’t need a college degree to check the boxes every time I made online reservations requesting a wheelchair. I don’t know what problem your son had but I found it to be very simple as do the many others who check the boxes every day. If this family had a problem with it, they could have called the airline and requested the wheelchair.

[Turbogyrl]

Originally Posted by Rakin

If you want something done right, do it yourself and don't rely on others.

That family should have been traveling with the old grandmother.

Exactly.

So something happened to Grandmom, and now the family wants to sue the Airline?

No way would my elderly family member have been alone.

I don't believe the entire fault lies with the Airline...

Sad. Just sad. Poor lady.