PHL-ISP crew kick off blind man w/service dog; flight cancelled

 
Old Nov 14, 2013, 5:31 pm
  #16  
 
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Originally Posted by Tanic
The flight was operated by Piedmont (Henson). But to the general public, US gets the blame.

The month before America West name disappeared, they lost my bag.
It never occurred to me to blam US Airways.



US Airways now has the freedom to do a lot of PR-damaging things.
Just do it quickly before the US Airways name becomes American.
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Old Nov 14, 2013, 7:10 pm
  #17  
 
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PHL-ISP crew kick off blind man w/service dog; flight cancelled

I'm not familiar with the Dash 8 but isn't the f/a jumpseat by the boarding door and the first row of seats? That would be an exit row and service animals can't be in an exit row.
Service dogs that are actually trained are very familiar with airplane seating and they have no problems making themselves fit. It's pretty fascinating to see them.
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Old Nov 14, 2013, 8:04 pm
  #18  
 
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US Airways seems to be getting slammed in the court of public opinion - they've certainly got enough comments on their FB page to that effect, although I wonder how many people will actually follow through on their threats to boycott the airline.

If the ADA follows up on this, I think US Airways is in big trouble. I have friends who train golden lab guide dogs - the behavioral expectations for these dogs is extremely high. I don't believe the FA's comment about the dog walking up and down the aisle, although I can see the dog trying to stretch out or at least get a little more comfortable until commanded to change position (when my friends bring their dogs to church the dogs appear to doze off during the sermon).

I can see the pilot deciding to cancel the flight if he realized everyone was upset at the FA and if something happened they wouldn't listen to her or feared she'd be harassed during the flight.

Bottom line: I don't buy the FA's story and US Airways is looking at a lot of trouble from a PR, and possibly a DOT standpoint.
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Old Nov 14, 2013, 8:12 pm
  #19  
 
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Originally Posted by Vecturist14
US Airways seems to be getting slammed in the court of public opinion - they've certainly got enough comments on their FB page to that effect, although I wonder how many people will actually follow through on their threats to boycott the airline.

If the ADA follows up on this, I think US Airways is in big trouble. I have friends who train golden lab guide dogs - the behavioral expectations for these dogs is extremely high. I don't believe the FA's comment about the dog walking up and down the aisle, although I can see the dog trying to stretch out or at least get a little more comfortable until commanded to change position (when my friends bring their dogs to church the dogs appear to doze off during the sermon).

I can see the pilot deciding to cancel the flight if he realized everyone was upset at the FA and if something happened they wouldn't listen to her or feared she'd be harassed during the flight.

Bottom line: I don't buy the FA's story and US Airways is looking at a lot of trouble from a PR, and possibly a DOT standpoint.
IIRC, there are other empty seats on the Dash-8.

Why didn't the passenger sitting next to the blind passenger volunteer
to move? That would have created an empty floor space for the dog
to rest. I'm not a dog person, but I would have moved to give them
more space.

Supposedly all of the other passenger supported the blind passenger.
Or did that not apply to the passenger sitting next to him?
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Old Nov 14, 2013, 8:17 pm
  #20  
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Originally Posted by Vecturist14
. . . If the ADA follows up on this, I think US Airways is in big trouble. . .
What does Assistant District Attorney have to do with this incident?

Originally Posted by Vecturist14
. . . I can see the pilot deciding to cancel the flight if he realized everyone was upset at the FA and if something happened they wouldn't listen to her or feared she'd be harassed during the flight. . .
Pilots don't cancel flights.

P.S. Thank you for a post that unveils the root of all our problems.
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Old Nov 14, 2013, 8:25 pm
  #21  
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Originally Posted by burlax
What does Assistant District Attorney have to do with this incident?



Pilots don't cancel flights.

P.S. Thank you for a post that unveils the root of all our problems.
Sure, the ADA can't follow-up directly, but I'm sure the US Attorney General (representing the US Department of Justice) certainly can:
http://www.ada.gov/

Given that US Airways has already been working with them on the merger settlement, I'm sure it could be quite a lively conversation
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Old Nov 14, 2013, 8:35 pm
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Actuallly, the first stop for a complaint would be the DOT. Remember that just recently the DOT fined US for ADA issues with connecting between flights.

Jim
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Old Nov 14, 2013, 8:43 pm
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Originally Posted by aztimm
Sure, the ADA can't follow-up directly, but I'm sure the US Attorney General (representing the US Department of Justice) certainly can:
http://www.ada.gov/
The ADA is an act. I dont think inanimate objects can do anything on their own
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Old Nov 14, 2013, 8:43 pm
  #24  
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Originally Posted by aztimm
Sure, the ADA can't follow-up directly, but I'm sure the US Attorney General (representing the US Department of Justice) certainly can:
http://www.ada.gov/

Given that US Airways has already been working with them on the merger settlement, I'm sure it could be quite a lively conversation
1. Assistant District Attorney ( state level ) and US Attorney General ( federal level ) are two different people who do somewhat different things. ADA do criminal prosecutions under state jurisdiction. USAG represents the United States in much broader spectrum of cases under federal jurisdiction. Although USAG can theoretically follow up on this particular incident, in reality, he has more important matters to attend to.

2. Air carrier access to people with disabilities is governed by the Air Carrier Access Act, not ADA.

3. If the Vecturist14 was referring to Americans with Disabilities Act in #18, I am pretty certain that this Act itself will not follow up on anyone or anything any time soon.
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Old Nov 14, 2013, 8:57 pm
  #25  
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Originally Posted by aztimm
Sure, the ADA can't follow-up directly, but I'm sure the US Attorney General (representing the US Department of Justice) certainly can:
http://www.ada.gov/

Given that US Airways has already been working with them on the merger settlement, I'm sure it could be quite a lively conversation
Different part of DOJ deals with antitrust than deals with ADA and ACAA litigation.
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Old Nov 14, 2013, 9:04 pm
  #26  
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Originally Posted by burlax
1. Assistant District Attorney ( state level ) and US Attorney General ( federal level ) are two different people who do somewhat different things. ADA do criminal prosecutions under state jurisdiction. USAG represents the United States in much broader spectrum of cases under federal jurisdiction. Although USAG can theoretically follow up on this particular incident, in reality, he has more important matters to attend to.

2. Air carrier access to people with disabilities is governed by the Air Carrier Access Act, not ADA.

3. If the Vecturist14 was referring to Americans with Disabilities Act in #18, I am pretty certain that this Act itself will not follow up on anyone or anything any time soon.
AUSA -- a sort of federal ADA-- can refer civil litigation matters to their USA and through them on to the AG. USA offices do civil litigation too on behalf of the government. AUSAs used to be called A(US/Federal)DAs.
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Old Nov 14, 2013, 9:16 pm
  #27  
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Originally Posted by GUWonder
. . . AUSAs used to be called A(US/Federal)DAs.
Must have been back in the day of horse and buggy. Never heard an AUSA to be referred to as ADA. Live and learn.
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Old Nov 14, 2013, 10:00 pm
  #28  
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Originally Posted by Tanic
The flight was operated by Piedmont (Henson). But to the general public, US gets the blame.
So what? Piedmont is a wholly-owned subsidiary of US, so except for corporate law and labor contract purposes, the flight was a US Airways flight. Even more so than a SkyWest or Mesa flight. US Airways owns this one.

This is analogous to an American Eagle Airlines operated flight. As a wholly owned subsidiary, there is strict accountability to the mainline parent that might not be as realistic had the flight been operated by an outside contractor.

For anyone out there harboring issues toward emotional support animals, this was a blind man with a seeing eye dog. Seeing eye dogs have been accepted for decades.

This sounds like one of those situations where the flight attendant should have just taken care of their myriad duties and left the blind man alone. Instead, it sounds as though she decided to exercise her "authoritah" where discretion, a bit more maturity and some compassion on her part would have prevented any disturbance. Occasionally, some flight attendants earn the derogatory moniker of "prison matron" and my guess is that this is one of those times.

Yes, they're all at risk of those mythical $10,000 fines we hear about so often. Sure. If fines of that magnitude were levied against regional airline (or even mainline) FAs, there would be lots of cites and links. And if the flight attendants were truly worried about FAA inspectors assessing fines against them, there wouldn't be so many of them fiddling with their smartphones during taxi-out for the past several years (yes, the rules changed for many airlines last week).
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Old Nov 15, 2013, 12:32 am
  #29  
 
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Additional link

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?se...cal&id=9325216

Sounds like the passengers did try to move
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Old Nov 15, 2013, 7:26 am
  #30  
 
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The Air Carrier Access ACT ACAA = The ADA of the Sky

The primary civil rights law here is the Air Carrier Access Act, ACAA, with accompanying DOT regulations 14 CFR Part 382. The law is primarily enforced by the DOT.
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