Nadine Thompson
Posted on 02/08/2006 4:55:46 AM PST by billorites
Concord – An African-American woman claims Southwest Airlines unfairly subjected her to its policy requiring large passengers to buy two seats because of her race, a lawyer said yesterday at the start of her federal trial against the airline.
Nadine Thompson of Exeter, president of a cosmetics company, sued Southwest in federal court for discrimination in 2004, saying the company doesn’t uniformly enforce its policy requiring obese passengers to buy two seats.
Thompson, who had flown on Southwest frequently, was on her way to a business conference in Chicago in June 2003 when she boarded her flight at Manchester Airport. Not long after she took a seat in the back of the plane, put the arm rest down and buckled her seat belt, an employee she saw at the check-in counter asked her to get off, Thompson’s lawyer, Neil Osborne, said in opening statements.
Nadine Thompson, president, CEO and co-founder of Warm Spirit Inc. beauty and wellness company in Exeter, is suing Southwest Airlines. (DAVID LANE) She was told at the plane’s loading bridge she needed to buy a second seat for “her comfort and safety,” Osborne said, even though no one was sitting next to her. At the time, the 5-foot-8-inch Thompson weighed between 300 and 330 pounds, according to court records.
When Thompson asked for an explanation, she didn’t get one. “It was never made clear to her that she was too big to fit in her seat,” Osborne told the six-person jury.
She refused to leave and decided to return to her seat. An employee told her that if she left, Southwest would give her a refund, Osborne said. She declined, but she became increasingly agitated and decided to leave — only to be met outside the plane by a few Southwest employees and two Rockingham County Sheriff’s deputies. At that point, she started yelling at the group, at times using profanity.
“Did you ask me to purchase another ticket because I’m too fat to sit in the seat? Did you ask me to purchase another ticket because I’m a black woman?” Thompson said, according to court records.
Thompson, who got a refund, said she was humiliated and suffered emotional distress. “Southwest just asked me to get off the plane either because I’m too fat or too black or just a woman,” she said to people as she was being led to the ticket counter, according to court records.
Thompson is not challenging the passenger seat policy itself, Osborne said.
“This is not a case about weight discrimination,” he said. “This suit is about the inappropriate application of a policy in a discriminatory manner.”
Garry Lane, a Southwest lawyer, said the airline’s “customer of size” policy, introduced in 2002 in response to “squished customer” complaints and safety concerns about evacuations, wasn’t written clearly at the time. Employees made some mistakes in explaining it, but did not act out of racial bias, he said.
The policy specifically didn’t require Thompson to buy a second seat after she was allowed to board, but employees mistakenly had told her that she had to, Lane said.
“It has to be handled discreetly,” Lane said of the passenger-seat issue. “It’s part of the company’s policy.”
The employees who spoke to Thompson made sure the loading bridge was clear of other customers before they asked her to come out, he said. Also, they had noticed her when she boarded the plane, but found it difficult to judge if she needed to buy another seat without seeing her sit down, he said.
The policy states that a customer of size is someone who can’t sit in a seat without having the armrest raised and is sitting on part of the seat next to him. Lane said the Southwest employees will testify that they saw the armrest up most of the time and that Thompson was sitting on part of the adjacent seat.
Lane said none of the workers ever shouted at Thompson, used profanity or touched her. The deputies, who handle security at the airport, did not handcuff her and helped her make flight arrangements to Chicago via another airline, he said.
Thompson was expected to testify today.
Your reply is the opposite of what abathar and bronxboy said.
I had to sit next to a very large woman on a flight. Here is what I did. i put a magazine upright, touching the armrest -- this was to keep her blubber in her seat, not mine. She sat in the isle, so she was able to lift her armrest up and spill out into the aisle.
So it wasn't as horrible as it could have been.
Not to mention round.
Seems to me this woman made a good effort to humiliate herself.
Not to many of us scream and yell and utter profanities in similar situations.
Obviously, this woman didn't go to that trouble.....probably because she didn't want to. IMO, she (or perhaps others who put the idea in her head) saw the road to glory in a massive law suit and barged right into a pre-planned situation.
If you and I were then escorted off the plane, we wouldn't balk, scream, holler or use profanities. We'd go quietly and see our lawyer later.
But this woman, again IMO, resisted in order to bait airline staff and security into grabbing, touching or restraining her.
However, she may have overplayed her hand and will end up with nothing but an unfulfilled scheme and a bag of peanuts.
Leni
And the easier it is to cook/heat/microwave is also an indication of the same.
Obesity and laziness are long time associates.
Ever notice how the handicap shopping carts are all mostly used by people who are so fat they can't walk? Take a look at what they have in the shopping basket. Usually, there is nothing in there that takes longer than two minutes to "zap" in the microwave.
If I start ball parking my weight with a leeway of 30 pounds, someone please wire my mouth shut. This story isn't over. The fat lady got made, swore, hired a lawyer, cried racism, but she didn't sing, yet.
Hey, if the butt don't fit, you must not sit.
I got on a plane, and a HUGE guy took the seat next to me. Now, I am not a little guy, but my shoulder was literally in this guys armpit for 3 hours.....and on another flight, I got the emergency aisle seat(center seat) and they put a HUGE guy in the seat next to the emergency exit. He was 2 times larger than the exit. If we had to evacuate the plane, we could not have gotten out through that exit. If you take up 2 seats, you should buy 2 seats, period.
Gawd. That sounds absolutely AWFUL. I agree, my flight was a lite version and it was HORRID. I flew 1st class on the return trip and even that was not what I could call "pleasant."
Ah, yes, America. The only country on earth were the poorer you are the fatter you are.
Thank you!! You expressed my thoughts exactly.
10?
Well, duh! The difference is ten! :-)
I am by no means an aero expert, but I did go through a graduate program for Aero Science. So I know the basics on the major platforms.
And, even more importantly, I have stock in Southwest! :-p
Nadine Thompson
The implicaiton of her claim is that Black people are dispportionately fat, and the airlines should allow for that. If I were the NAACP, I'd be ticked-- at her. This is one racial discrimination complaint that I HOPE comes before a black judge.
"Mexican American and black (non-Hispanic) adults in the U.S. are considerably more overweight and obese than white (non-Hispanic) adults."
American Obesity Association
http://www.obesity.org/subs/fastfacts/Obesity_Minority_Pop.shtml
"The proof's in the pudding"...
It doesn't?
leni, i dont mean to nitpick, but i dont think a one once bag of peanuts is going to tide a 330 pounder over very long. btw, thats pro football player size and those are men. this nut is huge.
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