WDET News
- Wheelchair Users Sue Northwest Airlines
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Jul 10, 2008Automotive & BusinessToday attorneys for Northwest Airlines and five disabled passengers face-off…in a federal lawsuit alleging that the company routinely violates the rights of people who use wheelchairs.
WDET’s Quinn Klinefelter has more…
Pinckney resident Jim Keskeny has used a wheelchair for roughly three decades.
He spent nearly as long traveling by air throughout the nation and overseas…for vacations and as the U-S representative to the International Federation of Multiple Sclerosis Society.
But Keskeny says he found traveling on Northwest Airlines more debilitating than his disability.
“Being left on a plane for an unreasonable length of time…being dumped out of your wheelchair and having all kinds of other minor abuses occur…that just makes life such that I have avoided traveling for about six years now by airline…because of the fact that I know there is nothing positive in the experience to look forward to. Over and above all of the normal horror stories that you hear from regular airline travelers.”
Those kinds of concerns reached a crescendo about six years ago…when Northwest reached an agreement with the federal government to improve access to its aircraft for the disabled…and provide sufficient space to store often custom-made wheelchairs.
But attorney Richard Bernstein says Northwest is not living up to its end of the federal agreement.
Bernstein alleges that wheelchair users…who must transfer to a thinner chair that can roll along narrow aircraft aisles…are often dumped to the floor during the transfer.
“Just last week we got another call from another witness who was thrown from their wheelchair and sustained serious injuries while attempting to fly Northwest Airlines…The callous nature that Northwest Airlines is showing to these passengers is not just inconvenient…but it’s incredibly dangerous. People are getting hurt. They’re getting hurt on a daily basis.”
Bernstein filed a federal lawsuit against Northwest and the Wayne County Airport Authority on behalf of five disabled wheelchair users…who claim that the airline typically treats them in a degrading manner.
The suit alleges that disabled people are often injured while getting into their seats by poorly-trained Northwest employees…and that wheelchairs are frequently stored so badly they end up damaged…sometimes beyond repair.
Bernstein says sometimes wheelchair users are simply exiled to a runway…while the airline tries to find their chair or some other way to get them on and off an airplane.
“If people are being tossed out of wheelchairs…and left on planes and left on tarmacs and having their wheelchairs destroyed…when the law so clearly states what the airlines’ responsibility is to do…and the U-S Department of Transportation has done nothing…then I think that’s a real telling sign about the regulatory agencies that are responsible for our nation’s airlines.”
Bernstein claims the Transportation Department’s relationship with the airline industry is too cozy to adequately enforce regulations designed to help the disabled.
But attorneys arguing on behalf of Northwest say ONLY the U-S Transportation Department can require the kind of changes Bernstein seeks…
They say access to aircraft is NOT subject to litigation from private individuals.
Still…the attorney leading the firm representing Northwest – former Mayor of Detroit Dennis Archer – says the airline tried to reach an accord with Bernstein before today’s court hearing…but were rebuffed.
Archer agrees the situations described by some wheelchair users are unfair…but he adds that they are FAR from being typical or routine.
“They represent an aberration of what might occur or can occur when you are running a business with millions of passengers. And despite your best efforts there may be an aberration that occurs. And when that occurs…as we learned from the customer advisory board on disabilities…we try to make the appropriate changes.”
Archer notes that some obstacles faced by wheelchair users are beyond either the airline or airport’s control – such as being required to go through metal detectors by the Transportation Security Administration.
In fact…Archer says Northwest has gone out of its way to aid disabled passengers…from advice given at check-in counters to help with transportation.
“And when you have someone who is traveling who is disabled…and if they alert the airline and let them know…we have people there waiting for them at the curb when they pull up…so that we can address their needs. And even if they don’t come…if they’re identifiable…the airline personnel wants to make sure that their trip is made as comfortable as possible.”
Arguments in the case are scheduled to begin this afternoon at federal court in Detroit.The outcome could set a national model for how the entire airline industry treats wheelchair users…and define just what recourse the disabled have in questioning access to aircraft.