Suit Challenges Northwest and Metro

Oakland Press

Voices of Disability

By Jerry Wolffe, Staff Writer
May 4, 2008

Jill Babcock thinks she and four other plaintiffs will win their federal lawsuit against Northwest Airlines, which contends that the air carrier discriminates against disabled people.

“It’s a no-brainer,” said Babcock, 37, who has a form of multiple sclerosis and uses a wheelchair.

Babcock is an attorney and has a master’s degree in tax law.

She usually flies six to 12 times a year for both business and pleasure and cringes every time she goes near the Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport in Romulus or on a Northwest Airlines’ airplane, she said.

Two years ago, the Farmington woman flew to England and then to Dublin, Ireland.

“When I came back, the airline gave my wheelchair to someone else at a stopover in Newark, N.J. Then, they gave me an awful industrial-strength chair.

“There was no way I could pump the wheels myself,” she said.

“I was very anxious because obviously I had gotten the wrong chair and I just spent all this money on it,” Babcock said.

It had taken six to nine months for delivery of her $3,500 custom measured “Colors in Motion” manual lightweight wheelchair.

Some motorized wheelchairs that are custom fitted by certified wheelchair experts can easily cost $20,000.

They take two months or more to be delivered and medical insurance, for most, only pays two-thirds of the cost.

Babcock, who has a son, Kiernan, 14, said she eventually learned that her wheelchair had been given to a woman with dementia at the Newark airport.

She managed to get her chair back by convincing an airline worker that her chair was given to someone else.

It eventually was returned to her before she completed the last leg of her trip back to Detroit.

“I’m always the last person off the plane,” she said. “Sometimes I’m wheeled on the plane in my chair, but I refuse to let airline workers touch me because they don’t know what they’re doing.

Farmington Hills attorneys Richard Bernstein and David M. Cohen filed the lawsuit on April 14.

“Plaintiffs bring this action to put an end to defendants Northwest Airlines Corp. and the Wayne County Airport Authority’s failure to comply with the Air Carrier Access Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973,” the suit says.

The lawsuit also contends “the defendants are discriminating against plaintiffs and others similarly situated by denying them equal access to air travel and attendant facilities at Detroit Metro Airport, including but not limited to McNamara Terminal, Smith Terminal, and adjoining areas such as parking facilities.”

Northwest makes those who cannot walk stand for “excessively prolonged periods of time, to wait in lines that said individuals cannot physically tolerate,” the suit also says.

It adds that Northwest “fails to provide boarding assistance on aircrafts” and “routinely engages in providing improper assistance, resulting in risk or injury to person and property, as well as great embarrassment and mortification for plaintiffs.”

Northwest Airlines vehemently disagrees.

“Northwest Airlines is disappointed to learn of this suit,” it said in a statement. “Despite repeated attempts to discuss any concerns through an open dialogue, (attorney) Richard Bernstein decided to take his concerns to court for what he alleges is noncompliance with the Air Carrier Access Act and the American’s with Disabilities Act.

“NWA has a solid record of compliance in this area, and is an industry leader, with the establishment of our consumer advisory board, which provides us with direct input from disability advocates.”

Babcock, who plans to go on vacation to the Dominican Republic in June says she’s experiencing more anxiety than before “because my disability is getting worse.”

“It’s going to take two or three years to resolve this and who knows how I’m going to be then,” she added.