WATCH ABOVE: A Northern California woman alleges that she was asked to get off a plane by an Alaska Airlines crew because of her cancer. Maria Medina reports from San Jose.
TORONTO – A San Jose woman says she was kicked off an airplane by an Alaska Airlines crew member because she didn’t have a doctor’s note.
51-year-old Elizabeth Sedway, a travel writer and attorney, has multiple myeloma — sometimes known as blood cancer. It affects white blood cells that would normally play a major role in fighting off germs. Aside from a surgical mask that a patient might need to wear to filter airborne particles, there is generally no visible sign of distress.
Sedway, her husband and two sons thought they were headed home Monday from a Hawaiian vacation that helped signal the couple’s fourteenth wedding anniversary.
When a staff member noticed her wearing a surgical mask and waiting to board a flight home from the designated handicap section, Sedway told her that she sometimes feels weak, according to a Facebook post.
That statement was apparently enough for a doctor to be alerted and Sedway examined.
Sedway was permitted to board the plane with her family. But, that’s as far as they got.
A member of the Alaska Airlines crew asked Sedway to vacate the aircraft. That’s when she started recording the incident with her cellphone.
“I’m being removed like I’m a criminal or contagious because I have cancer. No note to fly,” she can be heard announcing in the video posted on her Facebook page. “My family is being forcibly removed from the airplane because I have cancer.”
Sedway also claims that the forced delay has caused her to miss at least one chemotherapy treatment.
A representative for the airline has since apologized for the incident amidst a hail storm of bad publicity.
“We regret the inconvenience Ms. Sedway experienced yesterday and are very sorry for how the situation was handled,” spokeswoman Halley Knigge told CBS. “Her family’s tickets have been refunded and we will cover the cost of her family’s overnight accommodations in Lihue.”
“While our employee had the customer’s well-being in mind, the situation could have been handled differently.”
The Sedway family plans to turn their negative experience into a positive one by donating the refunded airfare to a research foundation.
“We plan to donate the airfare, to be refunded by Alaska Airlines, to the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation – MMRF,” Sedway said in a Facebook comment, reacting to all the support she has received. “Additionally, this airline will likely look at future events of this kind with increased wisdom and sensitivity.”
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