United Airlines Removes Deaf Passenger After Off-Duty Employee Complains—She ‘Wasn’t Listening’

Video shows United Airlines kicking a deaf woman off of a flight for offending an off-duty employee.

A United Airlines first class passenger and his hearing impaired wife were booted from their flight after a conflict with an off duty crewmember. Video from the cabin shows the man in his seat, upset but controlled, explaining that the employee snapped at his wife because she “didn’t hear” and “wasn’t listening.” He says he tried to explain the disability; the employee got ruder rather than apologizing, and then they sat down.

The airline appears to be kicking them off the flight because he used “foul language” toward the employee, which he repeatedly denies. At least one other passenger appears willing to record and support him, and the cabin is offered up as witnesses, and he wants to hear the decision of their removal directly from the captain.

We don’t actually see the interaction between the employee and the man’s wife on video and it doesn’t show the aftermath – whether the passengers were rebooked or got banned.

She’s not hearing or hearing you. She was rude to her. So when we got on the plane, I tried explaining to her that my wife cannot hear properly. So instead of saying, I’m sorry, which has happened before many times with her condition, she just began to get ruder and snapping back at me. And then we came here and sat down.

So me and, again, my disabled wife should not have to leave this plane. And just so you know, I’m getting sure this will be filmed. So if you’re willing to deal with that as well, that’s all about you. So what you’re talking about is removing somebody who is hearing impaired from a flight because one of your employees who’s not even on your crew right now was rude…

Does that sound okay with anybody? My disabled wife. They’re asking the cops to get off the plane. …Where’s the captain? I want the captain to tell me to my face. He understands the situation and that he’s okay with asking us to leave. That’s all. I want to make sure. But again, what did we do? What did we do? What did we do? Then you’re asking us to get off the plane. No, no, no. I’m asking what we did. What we did? What did we do?…

I didn’t use foul language. I didn’t use foul language.

man and wife are asked to leave the plane
byu/Lazy-School-7580 inPublicFreakout

Paddle Your Own Kanoo offers the theory that the man walked back to the off-duty flight attendant’s seat after boarding and demanded an apology, triggering the decision to remove him and his wife.

Most observers seem to fall into these camps:

• The wife is hearing impaired, and her disability was misread as rudeness. This happens constantly in noisy environments like planes.

• He’s calm and the crew is escalating without articulating a concrete reason. People read his composure as evidence the airline is overreacting.

• Once you’re told to deplane, you’re done. Practically this is true, whether it’s fair or not. Any review of the situation will have to come ater the fact, and video evidence is useful.

• United has a lot of baggage on passenger removal. It’s amazing to me that nearly nine years later David Dao being dragged off a flight and bloodied still comes up in this context, but that was such a worldwide phenomenon that it’s ingrained. The airline has not escaped it in the intervening years.

More than one person notes that there’s something ironic about a deaf woman being ejected from a plane over hearsay. Ultimately, though:

• Airlines have broad discretion to refuse transport when they decide someone “is, or might be, inimical to safety” under 49 U.S.C. § 44902(b) and the captain’s discretion is virtually unreviewable, given tht they’re presumed reasonable based on the facts available to them at the time.

• However, an airline may not discriminate against an “otherwise qualified individual” on disability grounds under 49 U.S.C. § 41705. So the relevant question after the fact is whether this was a safety and operational judgment about passenger conduct (harassment, confrontation, profanity), or whether the described conduct was pretext for a disability-linked issue?

As the passenger what I would have done is insisted on speaking with United’s Complaints Resolution Official, who is required to be available to mediate disability-related issues. That forces adjudication of the disability rights process with required documentation.

Under the Air Carrier Access Act, airlines have to designate and make available an official to handle complaints alleging disability-related violations. They’re callable when a passenger asserts a violation of disability rights such as a failure to accommodate a disability or discrimination because of the disability. They can be available by phone but they are supposed to be made available.

Here, an off duty United employee was likely given extra weight in their complaint because they weren’t just being treated as a random passenger. That’s unfortunate, it’s reality, but it’s also what the Complaint Resolution Official is for. They’d need to take witness input in the matter as well.

Last year I reported on a United flight attendant having security remove a disabled first class passenger and this isn’t the first time a United pilot has grounded a passenger over foul language.