[nfbmi-talk] Man Kicked Off Airline Flight Over Guide Dog

[Terry D. Eagle]

November 14, 2013



Man Says He Was Kicked Off Plane Over Guide Dog



NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - A legally blind man from Long Island said he is

considering a lawsuit against U.S. Airways after he claims he was kicked off

a flight because of his guide dog.



Albert Rizzi was on a U.S. Airways Express flight from Philadelphia to Long

Island’s MacArthur Airport Wednesday night when he said a flight attendant

demanded his guide dog named Doxy be placed under the seat.



Rizzi said he was sitting in the back row of the plane with no storage room

under his seat. After a delay on the tarmac, Rizzi said Doxy had gotten

restless and was curled up beneath his legs. He said the flight attendant

kept saying they couldn’t take off until the dog was “stowed under the

seat.”



“I took offense to that. My dog is not to be stowed, he’s not an inanimate

object,” he told 1010 WINS’ Mona Rivera. “This woman just did not want to

understand that sitting on a plane for an hour and a half for any human is

uncomfortable. The dog was just antsy and wanted to get comfortable.”



As WCBS 880′s Sophia Hall reported, another passenger offered to let Doxy

stay under her seat.



Rizzi said the flight attendant later returned and kicked him and his dog

off the flight because she said the plane could not be secured with the dog.

Rizzi Says Fellow Passengers Got Off the U.S. Airways Flight In Protest



“I could not tell that there were other seats where I could have

accommodated her needs. She never once tried to move me or anybody to secure

the aircraft the way she was purporting it needed to be secured,” Rizzi

told Hall.



The incident triggered a show of solidarity from other airline passengers,

CBS 2′s Mary Calvi reported