A wheelchair-bound Hawaiin man filed a lawsuit in a federal court Tuesday against Delta Airlines, who allegedly assured the man they could compensate his disability but then could not, forcing him to have to crawl down the aisle to exit the plane.
Baraka Kanaan suffered severe spinal injuries after a car accident in 2000, leaving him unable to walk and dependent on his wheelchair.
Kanaan was traveling from Massachusetts back to his home in Maui, Hawaii, by three Delta Airlines flights in summer 2012 when the incidents took place. Weeks before his flights, he checked with the airline, who assured him they had the proper equipment to get him on and off the plane, but they did not.
According to Huffington Post, when Kanaan arrived in Massachusetts and asked a flight attendant what he should do to get off the plane, they responded, "I don't know, but we can't get you off the plane.”
They assured him the incident would never happen again, but on his flight home two days later, it did. Kanaan said the flight attendants on either flight made no effort to assist him because they feared liability issues, NY Daily News reports.
Kanaan filed a complaint with the airline, who offered him $100 and 25,000 SkyMiles, which he refused because he never wanted to travel with the airline again. Kanaan says this his shameful crawl on and off the plane irritated his injuries more and left him humiliated in front of the rest of the passengers.
This is not the first time Delta Airlines has received complaints of not being accommodating to passengers with disabilities.