[Nfbf-l] Philadelphia-to-Long Island airline passengers refuse tofly over treatment of blind man

[Beth Taurasi]

Airlines just want money.  My boyfriend Blake and I are not happy 
with whuaft U.s. did with Rizzi.
Beth

 ----- Original Message -----
From: "Alan Dicey" <adicey at bellsouth.net
To: <Undisclosed-Recipient:;
Date sent: Fri, 15 Nov 2013 02:05:55 -0500
Subject: [Nfbf-l] Philadelphia-to-Long Island airline passengers 
refuse tofly over treatment of blind man

Guess there always are two sides to any story, so it'll be 
interesting to
hear the rest of the airline's side of it as the days unfold:
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local/long_island&
id=9325237
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local/long_island&
id=9325237

LONG ISLAND (WABC) -- Airline passengers in Philadelphia came 
together in a
show of support for a legally blind man who they believe was 
mistreated by a
flight attendant.
The incident happened aboard a U.S. Airways Express flight to 
MacArthur
Airport on Long Island Wednesday evening.
The issue was over the Albert Rizzi's guide dog, which the 
airline says was
out of control.
With passengers refusing to fly if Rizzi couldn't get on the 
plane, the
flight was canceled and the passengers bused to Long Island by 
the airline.
The passengers say the flight attendant would not let the plane 
leave
without the guide dog going under the plane's seat, which they 
helped him
do. But after waiting on the tarmac for more than an hour and a 
half, the
dog began to get restless.
That's when the flight attendant kicked the man and his dog off 
the flight.
"The lady comes back and gets very insistent, and I said, 'Look, 
I don't
understand what you want me to do.' I said, 'He's as best as he 
can, he's
where he needs to be,'" Rizzi said. "And I hear nobody else 
moving, and as
I'm walking to the front, I'm like wait a second, why am I the 
only one
getting off?"

In a show of support, passengers came to Rizzi's defense, saying 
he did
nothing wrong and that it was the flight attendant with the 
problem.
"She came back and said to him, 'You've got about a minute to get 
this
straightened out,'" one passenger said. "And he tried to do 
whatever he
could, and she went back to the front of the plane. We were 
taxiing like we
were going to take off. And at that point in time, we're about to 
take off,
and all the sudden the captain gets on the PA and says we have to 
head back
to the terminal...We were all kind of raised our voices and said 
this is a
real problem. So the captain winds up coming out of the cockpit, 
and he
basically asked us all to leave the aircraft."
Passengers say the attendant was unwilling to compromise and that 
there were
open seats and other options for Rizzi and his dog. Officials at 
U.S.
Airways say Rizzi got verbally abusive.
US Airways officials say the crew's safety was a factor and that 
they have
training for guide dog procedures. They are investigating the 
incident.
The bused passengers arrived on Long Island around 2:30 a.m. 
Those who
didn't get on the bus spent the night in Philadelphia and will 
figure out
their travel plans later.


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