Frequent Flyer Sues 7 Airlines for Discriminating Against Passengers Who Can’t Wear Masks

Washington, D.C., Man Challenges Airlines’

Illegal & Onerous Exemption Requirements

June 14, 2021

By LUCAS WALL

ORLANDO, Florida – A frequent traveler unable to wear a mask filed suit today against Southwest Airlines, Alaska Airlines, Allegiant Air, Delta Air Lines, Frontier Airlines, JetBlue Airways, and Spirit Airlines for discriminating against passengers with medical conditions that prevent them from wearing face masks in violation of the Air Carrier Access Act. This case appears to be the first in the nation to challenge airline policies that make it practically impossible to obtain an exemption from the Federal Transportation Mask Mandate.

Lucas Wall, 44, of Washington, D.C., was stopped from boarding his Southwest Airlines flight June 2 from Orlando to Fort Lauderdale for not wearing a face covering despite having submitted the required exemption form to Southwest on May 31 when he booked his ticket. Wall suffers from Generalized Anxiety Disorder, which causes him hyperventilation and panic attacks when he tries to cover his mouth and nose.

“This case does not turn on the facts,” Wall argues in his 94-page complaint filed today in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida in Orlando. “The evidence is indisputable that all seven defendants for the past year or so during the COVID-19 pandemic have illegally discriminated against potentially millions of flyers with disabilities in refusing to grant any mask exemptions and/or requiring such an onerous exemption process that travelers such as myself with a medical condition that makes it impossible for them to cover their face are essentially banned from using the nation’s commercial aviation system.”

Lucas Wall Appears on ABC 7 News Washington (5 p.m.) to Discuss Mask Lawsuit Against 7 Airlines

The Transportation Security Administration would not let Wall, who is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, through its checkpoint June 2 after Southwest refused to grant him a medical exemption. Today’s lawsuit follows a civil complaint Wall filed in the same court June 7 asking a federal judge to strike down the FTMM and International Traveler Testing Requirement as illegal and unconstitutional.

Wall has a ticket booked June 16 to fly from Fort Lauderdale to Salt Lake City on JetBlue, which he likely won’t be able to use because of the airline’s illegal mask-exemption prerequisites. He has other tickets booked in the next month to fly on Frontier, Allegiant, Southwest, Delta, Spirit, and Alaska.

In today’s complaint, Wall charges the seven airlines with two counts of violating the Air Carrier Access Act, a federal law that prohibits discrimination against flyers with disabilities. He also charges the defendants with one count of violating federal law requiring them to provide service with the highest possible degree of safety in the public interest to maintain their FAA operating certificates.

Wall, a former transportation reporter and editor who has flown more than 1.5 million miles, has been taking care of his mother in The Villages, Florida, during the last several months of the pandemic. Now that he and his mom have been fully vaccinated, Wall has eight airline tickets booked for summer travel, which was supposed to start with the June 2 flight to Fort Lauderdale.

“Surprisingly, this lawsuit appears to be the first in the nation to challenge the horrendous discriminatory practices of the airline industry when it comes to enforcing the FTMM as well as their own internal policies dictating that flyers cover their faces,” Wall wrote. “In mandating masks for all passengers, the defendants have unacceptably violated the ACAA – especially when it comes to illegally discriminating against passengers with disabilities who can’t medically tolerate wearing a face covering with arduous exemption requirements that aren’t supported by law.”

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Lucas Wall Appears on ABC 7 News Washington (4 p.m.) to Discuss Mask Lawsuit Against 7 Airlines