Category - News
Major Airline Hit With Record Fine Over Treatment of Disabled Passengers
American Airlines has agreed to an astonishing settlement with the U.S. Department of Transportation over the airline’s treatment of disabled passengers, CBS reported. American will pay $50 million in fines, the highest amount the agency has ever levied against an airline.
During its investigation, the agency found numerous instances of American Airlines providing disabled passengers with "unsafe physical assistance.” The alleged incidents "at times resulted in injuries and undignified treatment of wheelchair users," the department announced on Wednesday. The agency also accused American Airlines of mishandling or damaging hundreds of wheelchairs belonging to passengers between 2019 and 2023, leaving many people without their mobility devices.
"The era of tolerating poor treatment of airline passengers with disabilities is over," U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in Wednesday’s statement. "With this penalty, we are setting a new standard of accountability for airlines that violate the civil rights of passengers with disabilities. By setting penalties at levels beyond the mere cost of doing business for airlines, we're aiming to change how the industry behaves and prevent these kinds of abuses from happening in the first place.”
American Airlines came under fire in 2023 when a video showing crew members mishandling a passenger’s wheelchair spread across social media.
@haez93 Dang, after i saw them do this and laugh with the first two wheelchairs i had to get it on film. That is not what id call “handling with care” for someones mobility device…. #AmericanAirlines #handlewithcare #mobilitydevice #wheelchair
♬ Oh No - Kreepa
Although the issues are not exclusive to American, the agency found that the airline is "one of the worse [sic] performers among U.S. airlines in terms of both the total number of wheelchairs–and scooters–mishandling claims” as well as “the rate of mishandling claims.”
In 2022, the Transportation Department created an Airline Passengers with Disabilities Bill of Rights. It requires that airlines “help passengers with disabilities get on and off aircraft and move through the airport,” and must “return passengers' wheelchairs and mobility devices to them in a timely manner, and in the condition in which they were received.”