Delta Airlines allegedly refused to let two deaf passengers board their flight following an encounter with a gate agent, who the couple claims refused to engage with them in a way they could understand. The details of what transpired are disputed by both sides, but video evidence does show a gate agent apparently refusing to engage through writing toward the end of the incident.
The couple is now threatening legal action.
Melissa Yingst and Socorro Garcia were attempting to fly home to Los Angeles on Sunday after spending several days in Detroit for Creating Change, the national conference on LGBTQ equality. They had purchased their tickets separately and asked a gate agent if they could be seated together, and at first the gate agent said she would try, even though the flight was fully checked in. The couple said they communicated their requests using an iPhone to write out what they were saying.
A short while later, a gate agent allegedly informed them in writing on a piece of paper that she would not be able to assign them seats next to each other. (A Delta spokesperson told ThinkProgress this week that flight attendants often assist with such requests on board the plane by asking other passengers if they’re willing to volunteer to switch seats.) Believing the conversation over, the agent then allegedly crumbled the paper she’d used to communicate and discarded it under the podium desk.
But Yingst and Garcia were not done communicating, and the couple claimed one of them attempted to retrieve the piece of paper from the bin behind the desk, where passengers are typically prohibited. According to both the couple and Delta spokespeople, a physical altercation ensued, with Garcia claiming the agent tried to push her away. Delta claimed Garcia had shoved the agent first, to try to get to the piece of paper.
The agents subsequently called airport police, and the couple was barred from boarding. They had to find a hotel for an extra night and take a different flight with a different carrier the next day to get home. In their hotel room, they recorded a Facebook video describing their experience, which went viral.
“Even though I have seen this many times, it was a huge shock when it happened to us tonight,” Yingst says in the video. “I know no one is immune to communication barriers and this kind of situation, so I felt the need to share our experience. The feeling of being oppressed is very traumatic.”
Delta put out an official statement Monday saying it was “reviewing the situation with our work with these customers to better understand what transpired.”
“As always, we take situations like these seriously and we are using this as an opportunity to learn and improve,” a spokesperson wrote.
Delta also told ThinkProgress that it’s standard operating procedure to deny travel and refund the remaining portion of a customer’s ticket whenever there is a physical altercation or reaction on the part of the customer. That’s what happened in this case, the company claimed, and it is still conducting a review and working out how to resolve the situation with the couple.
Yingst and Garcia dispute this claim, however, insisting that they have not been reimbursed for the flight.
In a follow-up statement provided to ThinkProgress, they alleged that the gate agent crumpled the paper in front of their faces and ignored their requests to use the piece of paper to continue the conversation, which they described as “an outright denial of communication access.” If the agent ever offered to allow for volunteers to switch seats, it was not communicated in writing, they claimed.
The couple also posted a brief video of the gate agent taken after the physical interaction took place. While it doesn’t document how the situation escalated, it does show the agent refusing to communicate with them in a way they can understand. “No more talking,” she says. “No more talking.”
Yingst and Garcia are calling on Delta to reimburse them not only for their flight, but also for the lodging and additional flight they had to purchase to get home. They are also calling on Delta employees to undergo training about how to effectively communicate with deaf customers.
Delta claims this training already takes place. The Air Carrier Access Act requires that airlines must provide deaf passengers access to the same information provided to other passengers.
The National LGBTQ Task Force, which organizes the Creating Change conference, condemned Delta for its alleged actions, providing ThinkProgress with the following statement:
The National LGBTQ Task Force was shocked at Delta’s actions against two deaf Creating Change conference goers. The airline should stop trying to justify its actions and take immediate steps to prevent future incidents from occurring. No one should have to fear Delta will call the police on them for simply being deaf, blind, or disabled.
We expect more from Delta. The airline must immediately apologize to Socorro Garcia and Melissa Elmira Yingst, and reimburse them for the additional travel costs they had to incur and provide new strong protections and guidelines for working with deaf, blind, and disabled passengers.
If their requests are not met, the couple says they are considering taking legal action against the airline.