American Airlines has been fined $50 million by the US Department of Transportation for allegedly mistreating passengers with disabilities, which the agency said has, in some cases, caused injury.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced the fine on Wednesday in a call to reporters, which is 25 times larger than any other fine levied by the department for disability-related violations.
“The era of tolerating poor treatment of airline passengers with disabilities is over,” Buttigieg said in a 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 a 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.”
According to Buttigieg, between 2019 and 2023, American Airlines allegedly "provided unsafe and undignified physical assistance to passengers on a number of occasions that, at times, resulted in injuries."
“They repeatedly failed to provide prompt wheelchair assistance, and they damaged thousands of passengers’ wheelchairs, which left passengers without the device they need to live their life fully,” Buttigieg added, per NBC News.
The airline announced on Wednesday that it had reached a settlement with the DOT and that it was making efforts to better meet the needs of customers who require mobility assistance.
The company said that its mishandling of mobility devices decreased by 20 percent since 2022, and they had invested $175 million in "services, infrastructure, training, and new technology" to further improve services for passengers with disabilities.
Buttigieg also told reporters that the department is investigating other airlines for possible violations, but said that American Airlines was "one of the worst offenders."
In 2020, attorneys representing an Idaho woman with disabilities sued American Airlines, alleging that employees forced the woman to crawl from her seat to a bathroom because the plane was not equipped with an aisle wheelchair.
The lawsuit claimed that the woman sustained injuries and was humiliated. She passed away in 2021, but a judge ruled that her husband could continue to pursue the case against American Airlines.
In 2023, American Airlines was hit with a class action lawsuit by an employee that claimed the company refused accommodations for workers with disabilities. It also accused the company of wrongfully terminating and failing to rehire workers with disabilities.
The DOT brought dozens of disability advocates to Washington in February to discuss proposed regulations that would force airlines to improve their handling of customers with disabilities.
One of the advocates was Thomas Braddy, who directs the National Council on Independent Living, according to NPR.
“The reason I didn’t fly anymore and I gave up flying was because too much damage [was done] to my chair,” he testified, saying that his aversion to flying held him back in his career and stopped him from traveling with his wife.
Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth, who lost both her legs while serving in the Iraq War, was also present and said she had similar experiences with her wheelchair, noting that “if [her chair] is broken, you’ve broken my legs.”
