(Credit: Alaska Airlines Screenshot: Chris Matyszczyk)
It's not good when someone is moved to go onto Facebook to
call you "the worst of humanity."
It's most definitely not good when you are an airline and
you're supposed to make humanity sit back, relax, and enjoy the cramped
conditions and that slightly smelly thing known as food.
Yet Alaska Airlines is this morning faced with having its
name being brought into disrepute, with the evidence still a little unclear.
As
the Associated Press reports it, Cameron Clark, an Oregon concert promoter
was so incensed by what he believes was ill treatment of a disabled passenger
by Alaska Airlines personnel that he had to do something about it.
So he
posted on Facebook. The post
began: "i witnessed today, what i consider to be the worst of
humanity."
The passenger -- who allegedly told Clark he had late-stage
Parkinson's -- was trying to fly to Bellingham, Wash., to see his daughter. In
Clark's version, the airline staff ignored him, failed to assist, and didn't
let him on the plane.
The airline's version is slightly different. In
an update on its Facebook page, the airline offered: "In this case,
our customer arrived late and didn't request our assistance or let us know of
any disabilities. He was also exhibiting signs of inebriation and smelled of
alcohol."
This doesn't seem to have assuaged posters to Alaska
Airlines' Facebook page.
(Credit: Cameron Clark/Facebook
Screenshot: Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)
For example, Christie Gower offered: "Seriously. Last
time I checked, alcohol is legal for those over 21yrs in ALL states. Perhaps if
this fellow was helped out the first time, he wouldn't have had a couple to
calm his nerves for his second attempt at getting on the plane. SHAME."
More Technically Incorrect
Mark McAdams was even more incensed: "So, your people
don't know the difference between someone with Parkinson's and someone who is
drunk? Do you also know when to service a jackscrew or not? Tearing up my
Alaska FF card now. YOU..... have a nice day!"
The airline says it refunded the passenger's ticket and flew
him to another destination, where he met up with his daughter.
Alaska Airlines spokesman Paul McElroy told the AP: "We
are prohibited from asking customers if they have a disability, and the customer
never told us that he had Parkinson's, or any disability for that matter. He
did appear disoriented to us, and later, when we smelled alcohol, we were led
to the conclusion he was intoxicated."
Clark, though, is unbowed.
On his Facebook page, he posted:
this is truly outrageous! i stood next to the man, and spoke
face to face with him-- much closer in proximity than any of Alaska's folks
across a counter. i smelled nothing. isn't it conceivable that someone
absolutely mistook his parkinson's behavior for that of someone being impaired?
you folks are starting to make a bed that will be very difficult to climb out
of... Alaska Airlines you have hit an all time low with this post. tragic.
Those looking in are now left to decide whom to believe. Was
the man -- whom Clark referred to as "Brent" -- drunk or did he have
Parkinson's?
Perhaps, in this case, only Brent himself can
offer all the facts. What is certain is that when a bystander posts with such
intensity about Alaska Airlines' service, the airline doesn't look good at all.
This is dummy text. It is not meant to be read. Accordingly, it is difficult to figure out when to end it. But then, this is dummy text. It is not meant to be read. Period.
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