News Woman sues American Airlines, claims emotional support dog was locked in aircraft restroom (1 Viewer)

[Ahsoka]

A Miami woman is suing American Airlines, accusing a flight attendant of mistreating her and locking her emotional support dog in an airplane bathroom for an hour.

Avigail Diveroli, who claims she suffers from severe anxiety, said her "medically necessary comfort animal," Simba, was quarantined in the bathroom during the last hour of an April flight from Miami to Los Angeles, according to the lawsuit.

At one point, the attendant, identified only as Regina in the suit, grabbed the kennel, with the dog inside, and started slamming it "with the door to the bathroom," according to the lawsuit.

Avigail Diveroli​

Avigail Diveroli, of Miami, said her emotional support dog, Simba, was forced to stay in an aircraft restroom during the last hour of an American Airlines flight.more +
Diveroli said she called the airline twice ahead of time, including the night before the flight, and claims the airline ensured her the night before the flight that Simba would be able to sit in business class with her and her family, according to the suit, filed in Miami last week.

She said she boarded the plane without an issue, but claims in her lawsuit that later on, one of the flight attendants screamed at her when she noticed the dog, saying it was against Federal Aviation Administration rules and that she would be "cuffed" once the plane landed.

Diveroli, who was traveling with her husband and her 87-year-old grandfather, said the attendant "forcefully downgraded" her to another seat mid-flight and ordered her "to lock up Simba in the bathroom for the last hour of the flight," the lawsuit said.

"This is a terrible case where AA completely ignored the mental anguish of a passenger, ignored their own carrier agreement with passengers, and violated every standard of decency," the suit said, noting that the woman was pregnant at the time. "Regina [the flight attendant] yelled at Plaintiff and her husband the whole trip, even stating so much that the dog is not allowed to be wrapped with an AA blanket."

Other flight attendants allegedly apologized for their co-worker's behavior, calling her a "sour apple," according to the lawsuit. Police escorted Diveroli off the flight upon landing, but, according to the lawsuit, they ultimately concluded that there was no crime.

She is seeking damages in excess of $75,000 and a jury trial.

American Airlines initially declined ABC News' request for comment, citing its pending litigation policy, but it released a statement on Wednesday, saying the "customer’s dog was traveling as a pet rather than an emotional support animal."

"FAA regulations require pets to stay in kennels that fit under the seat, however, this kennel didn’t fit under the seat. The flight crew tried to handle the situation in accordance with FAA regulations," the statement said. "Also, this travel was booked on a 777, which doesn’t allow pets in the premium cabin. Our team at the airport in Miami offered to rebook the passenger on a later flight, but they declined, and opted to take a seat with the pet in the main cabin."

Some airlines have taken steps to prevent passengers from abusing emotional support animal policies. Those efforts got a welcomed boost from federal officials last week when the Department of Transportation said that it was OK for airlines to ask travelers for documentation related to the animal’s training or behavior.

It said staff could require the documentation so long as “it’s reasonable to believe that the documentation would assist the airline in making a determination as to whether an animal poses a direct threat to the health or safety of others,” according to a statement from the Department of Transportation.

Source: Woman claims airline locked emotional support dog in plane restroom: Lawsuit





This is absolutely horrible. I have my own dislike of the airline after being stuck overnight in an unfamiliar airport due to them cancelling my second flight, so I definitely have a predisposition to hate them. This is something I can't imagine anyone ever actually being able to do, its so cruel and inhumane. Do they have no sympathy at all for their passengers and the dog? Im sure they could have found some easier workaround, but they immediately seem to have went with the violent and cruel option. I hope the woman is okay, I'm sure this was a very hard event for her and I wish her the best.

 

[deadstar]

Even if it is not in accordance with regulations, there was no need to treat the dog so cruelly :/

 

[blueberries]

There was the later part that made me think that maybe there was more to the story than lawsuit mentions, but at best it's miscommunication in the airline- she's first said that she's allowed to take her dog and then the staff on plane is saying that she isn't.

 

[yeji]

there were much more better ways to deal with this. It‘s unnecessarily cruel

 

[QueenB]

I was going to make a joke about united but i'll skip

Airlines are just really crappy here. There's not much regulating them and of the regulations they do have the government has defunded the programs so much that the airline companies and plane manufactures are overseeing themselves. There's a lot of problems with seating, prices, and pet care because of this. Also, the Boeing issue but that's a little more extreme

 

[lexus]

If anyone were to lock my pet up in a bathroom like that then they'd get slapped.

 

[Mayday]

The fact that people can treat animals like this is disgusting.

 

[LeeHoseok]

There's a big part of this story we have to be missing.

The thing is, emotional support animals are NOT service animals, and therefore they're not afforded the same protections. Most ESAs are untrained pets, whereas a service animal is specifically trained to assist its handler in certain tasks or perform an action in response to the handler's condition. This has caused a lot of issues because untrained ESAs are unpredictable and have caused chaos, bitten people, etc. Some airlines are now asking people bringing ESAs to provide proof of training because there have been so many problems.

A few highlighted bits to show we're definitely not getting the full story:

American Airlines initially declined ABC News' request for comment, citing its pending litigation policy, but it released a statement on Wednesday, saying the "customer’s dog was traveling as a pet rather than an emotional support animal."

"FAA regulations require pets to stay in kennels that fit under the seat, however, this kennel didn’t fit under the seat. The flight crew tried to handle the situation in accordance with FAA regulations," the statement said. "Also, this travel was booked on a 777, which doesn’t allow pets in the premium cabin. Our team at the airport in Miami offered to rebook the passenger on a later flight, but they declined, and opted to take a seat with the pet in the main cabin."

Diveroli, who was traveling with her husband and her 87-year-old grandfather, said the attendant "forcefully downgraded" her to another seat mid-flight and ordered her "to lock up Simba in the bathroom for the last hour of the flight," the lawsuit said.

"Regina [the flight attendant] yelled at Plaintiff and her husband the whole trip, even stating so much that the dog is not allowed to be wrapped with an AA blanket."

So, basically, this woman brought her ESA as a pet, which fly under different rules. If you have an ESA or service animal you MUST contact the airline in advance and tell them, otherwise any animal you travel with is subject to the pet rules. Their lawyer's own statement implies she removed the dog from the kennel, which, again, violates their rules for pets traveling inside the aircraft. The kennel they brought didn't fit under the seat, which is hazardous to both the dog & passengers in cases of turbulence or emergency. She also complained about being forcefully downgraded, but according to the airline they booked a flight that did not allow pets in the premium cabin (their fault for not checking & if they had the dog flying as a pet) and the airline even offered a later flight but they said no.

I've got a few problems with the family's side of the story, outside of the above quoted reasons. First, no one else has corroborated it. You'd think if other passengers saw a flight attendant behave in such a manner, someone would have said something. Two, she allegedly has severe anxiety, but was flying with her family. Why do you need an ESA when you have human support surrounding you? Three, I'd like to know the dog's age, because that honestly looks like a puppy (if the pictured dog is the same one from the flight) and puppies are notoriously hard to handle, especially if it's their first time flying. ESA or not, if they booked the dog on the flight as a pet, you can't just go, "Oh no, this is my ESA, it's fine!" when you arrive.

There is nothing cruel about placing a kenneled dog in an airplane bathroom for the last hour of a flight. It's actually much less cruel than forcing the animal to fly under the plane in cargo, as should have been done in the first place when they discovered the kennel was oversized. If the flight attendant slammed the kennel in the door, that is alarming and unprofessional, but she didn't hurt the dog.

We'll see how it goes at trial, but this whole thing reeks of entitlement.

 

[Ahsoka]

There's a big part of this story we have to be missing.

The thing is, emotional support animals are NOT service animals, and therefore they're not afforded the same protections. Most ESAs are untrained pets, whereas a service animal is specifically trained to assist its handler in certain tasks or perform an action in response to the handler's condition. This has caused a lot of issues because untrained ESAs are unpredictable and have caused chaos, bitten people, etc. Some airlines are now asking people bringing ESAs to provide proof of training because there have been so many problems.

A few highlighted bits to show we're definitely not getting the full story:




So, basically, this woman brought her ESA as a pet, which fly under different rules. If you have an ESA or service animal you MUST contact the airline in advance and tell them, otherwise any animal you travel with is subject to the pet rules. Their lawyer's own statement implies she removed the dog from the kennel, which, again, violates their rules for pets traveling inside the aircraft. The kennel they brought didn't fit under the seat, which is hazardous to both the dog & passengers in cases of turbulence or emergency. She also complained about being forcefully downgraded, but according to the airline they booked a flight that did not allow pets in the premium cabin (their fault for not checking & if they had the dog flying as a pet) and the airline even offered a later flight but they said no.

I've got a few problems with the family's side of the story, outside of the above quoted reasons. First, no one else has corroborated it. You'd think if other passengers saw a flight attendant behave in such a manner, someone would have said something. Two, she allegedly has severe anxiety, but was flying with her family. Why do you need an ESA when you have human support surrounding you? Three, I'd like to know the dog's age, because that honestly looks like a puppy (if the pictured dog is the same one from the flight) and puppies are notoriously hard to handle, especially if it's their first time flying. ESA or not, if they booked the dog on the flight as a pet, you can't just go, "Oh no, this is my ESA, it's fine!" when you arrive.

There is nothing cruel about placing a kenneled dog in an airplane bathroom for the last hour of a flight. It's actually much less cruel than forcing the animal to fly under the plane in cargo, as should have been done in the first place when they discovered the kennel was oversized. If the flight attendant slammed the kennel in the door, that is alarming and unprofessional, but she didn't hurt the dog.

We'll see how it goes at trial, but this whole thing reeks of entitlement.

i would imagine that when she called ahead to ask about it she would have talked about the fact that it is an emotional support animal and not have claimed it to be a security animal, and they should have told her the protocols about it.

Secondly Im pretty sure that dog is an adult, the breed is small but the puppies seem to look slightly different Their heads are bigger and bodies smaller proportionately, so i would assume it is old enough. Heres a photo of the puppy and adult.

Along with that if the problem was that the kennel didnt fit under the seat why was it allowed to begin with? The crew knew about the issue, but they let it go at the begining of the flight. If that was truly the case they should have said it before hand and dealt with it in a calmer and kinder manner, rather than the way they did.

 

[LeeHoseok]

i would imagine that when she called ahead to ask about it she would have talked about the fact that it is an emotional support animal and not have claimed it to be a security animal, and they should have told her the protocols about it.

Secondly Im pretty sure that dog is an adult, the breed is small but the puppies seem to look slightly different Their heads are bigger and bodies smaller proportionately, so i would assume it is old enough. Heres a photo of the puppy and adult.

Along with that if the problem was that the kennel didnt fit under the seat why was it allowed to begin with? The crew knew about the issue, but they let it go at the begining of the flight. If that was truly the case they should have said it before hand and dealt with it in a calmer and kinder manner, rather than the way they did.

I'll only say this one more time, it is the full responsibility of the person with the ESA to make sure they book the animal on the flight properly. I don't care if she talked about her ESA to the airline, unless she specifically stated which accommodations the animal needed, it's not their duty to inform her. If she did not educated herself on the requirements for the dog inside the cabin, that is her fault. Anyone that truly needs an emotional support animal should 100% know the rules and procedures in regards to traveling with them, they're not hard to find. One of these sides isn't telling the whole truth and right now it sounds like the woman suing.

I'd like to know how you got the breed from a photo, as it wasn't mentioned anywhere in that story and it's most definitely not the type of dog you posted.

As for the kennel, she may have claimed it fit or the flight crew may have just been fed up and wanted to get out of there, holding up an entire flight to deal with one dog is incredibly costly for the airline. One can only be so calm and so kind for so long if someone is uncooperative. Or they could have given her the option to hold the dog on her lap as long as it behaved, though I'm still not sure why she seemed to think she needed to wrap the dog in a blanket. Was their alleged handling of the incident unprofessional? If true, yes, but it is not lawsuit worthy as far as I'm seeing, without knowing more, because again, we're not getting the full story. Either way, this woman is asking for at least $75,000 for this incident which is far beyond a reasonable amount for the alleged distress caused.