DOT 90-01
Friday, September 7, 2001
Contact: Bill Mosley
Tel.: (202) 366-5571

DOT Enforcement Office Charges Northwest Airlines With Discrimination Against Passengers With Disabilities

The Office of the Assistant General Counsel for Aviation Enforcement and Proceedings of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) today charged Northwest Airlines with violating the Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA) and DOT regulations prohibiting discrimination against airline passengers with disabilities. The Enforcement Office is seeking $3 million in civil penalties.

Based on formal and informal complaints received, the Enforcement Office conducted an investigation of Northwest’s compliance with the ACAA’s requirements regarding wheelchair service and other assistance required to be provided disabled air travelers. A review of complaints received by the carrier and by DOT revealed a significant number of apparent violations, including instances of lengthy delays in obtaining wheelchairs, passengers being stranded aboard aircraft for extended periods, and passengers being left at the wrong gate, resulting sometimes in the passenger missing his or her flight. With respect to a number of the complaints examined, Northwest also failed to comply with the requirement for providing a proper written response to the complainant.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta, while not commenting on the merits of the case against Northwest, said, “I believe today as I believed over a decade ago, as a co-author of the Americans with Disabilities Act, that accessibility in transportation is a civil right. The U.S. Department of Transportation is committed to increasing mobility for all Americans, particularly those with disabilities.”

The Enforcement Office said that it recognized that Northwest Airlines probably transports the majority of disabled air travelers in accordance with the law; however, the fact that it still discovered several hundred violations, many of them egregious, is unacceptable and cannot be allowed to continue.

The Enforcement Office’s complaint includes sworn declarations from passengers alleging mistreatment by Northwest that it says constitutes violations of the ACAA and DOT regulations, such as the following:

• “The aircraft arrived and apparently all the passengers, including my family members who were accompanying my mother, deplaned … I asked the gate agents to check the aircraft to see if they might find my mother still on board. I was rebuffed three times over the course of approximately thirty minutes by Northwest agents who insisted it was impossible that anyone could have remained on the plane. The agents then proceeded to close and lock the door to the ramp leading to the aircraft. At this point in time there was also no wheelchair available despite my earlier requests. It was only after I implored a fourth time that the agent agreed to inspect the aircraft. Despite his repeated assurances to the contrary, my mother was in fact still on the aircraft.”

• “The wheelchair attendant pushed me into the concourse and, after looking at my ticket and checking with the gate agent, he pushed me to another gate, put me in a chair, and said that he would be back to assist me with boarding. During my wait, I tried to get the attention of a couple of female Northwest employees to assist me to the restroom because I knew it was almost time to board. One of them told me that they were busy, but she would come assist me in a few minutes. When the female Northwest employee finished what she was doing, she came to assist me. She looked at my ticket and said I was at the wrong gate and it was too late to board.”

• “When we arrived in Denver, there was no wheelchair there for [my husband Glenn]. I assisted Glenn up the jetway from the aircraft to the boarding area where I observed Glenn ask a Northwest gate agent about the status of his wheelchair service request. The gate agent told us to keep waiting, that a wheelchair would arrive soon. About an hour later, a Northwest Airlines ramp agent appeared with a wheelchair and pushed my husband in the wheelchair to the baggage claim area. When the Northwest ramp agent pushed the wheelchair into the elevator, he hit my husband’s injured knee against the closing elevator door. The ramp agent apologized to my husband and said that he worked outside handling luggage, not people.”

• “My disabled son requires a wheelchair for mobility … Northwest provided no ground personnel to assist in pushing the wheelchair at any of the four airports through which we traveled – not at Los Angeles, nor at Minneapolis, nor at Milwaukee, nor at Memphis. I was traveling with my four other children, as well as my disabled son, and attempting to carry baggage as well. At each stage of the journey, we were told to wait aboard the aircraft until all other passengers had left and that airline personnel would then be available to help. In no instance did this occur. We waited approximately 20 minutes on board the aircraft after landing on each occasion, at which time the cleaning crew was often on board the aircraft, but no assistance appeared.”

Under a recently amended law, a carrier may be assessed civil penalties of up to $10,000 for each ACAA violation. The Enforcement Office is seeking civil penalties against Northwest of $3 million for violations described in its complaint filed today, plus $10,000 for each additional violation revealed in the course of its investigation. This is the largest civil penalty ever sought by the Enforcement Office. The hearing proceeding instituted by the complaint will be heard by an administrative law judge (ALJ) from DOT’s Office of Hearings. In that proceeding, the Enforcement Office must prove the alleged violations. The Enforcement Office’s investigation was prompted by a formal complaint filed with the department by two air travelers with disabilities alleging that Northwest violated the ACAA and the department’s rules when it failed to provide them wheelchairs as required by law, even though they had requested wheelchairs over a month in advance. The text of the enforcement complaint and the formal complaint filed by the two passengers are available via the Internet at http://dms.dot.gov, docket number OST-00-6951. 

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Briefing Room