13 Flyers Who Can’t Wear Masks Charge
7 Airlines with Conspiracy to Violate Civil Rights

Nation’s First Class-Action Lawsuit Filed to Stop Airline

Mask Mandates that Discriminate Against Disabled

Sept. 14, 2021

By LUCAS WALL

ORLANDO, Florida – A group of 13 flyers from seven states, the District of Columbia, and Israel filed a civil complaint Monday night against seven major airlines charging them with conspiring to ban tens of millions of Americans with medical condition who can’t tolerate wearing face coverings from using the nation’s aviation system. It’s the first class-action lawsuit in the country challenging airlines’ mask mandates.

“Plaintiffs are a group of disabled (and one nondisabled) airline passengers who have been restricted from flying by the defendants for more than a year because of their enforcement of mask mandates that violate numerous provisions of federal and international laws, plus breach their contracts and violate tort law and the Constitution,” according to the 227-page amended complaint filed in the U.S. District Court in Orlando that charges the airlines and their executives with 30 offenses. “The one plaintiff who does not have a disability represents a class of flyers who strongly object to forced masking as a violation of their rights under federal law and the contracts of carriage.”

Plaintiffs demand a permanent injunction stopping the airlines from requiring face coverings and damages of $100,000 per person from each airline and $10,000 per person from each individual conspirator.

Lucas Wall, 44, of Washington, D.C., initiated the lawsuit June 14 after Southwest Airlines refused to grant him a medical mask exemption for a June 2 flight from Orlando to Fort Lauderdale. Wall also had tickets for summer travel on Alaska Airlines, Allegiant Air, Delta Air Lines, Frontier Airlines, JetBlue Airways, and Spirit Airlines that he wasn’t able to use because of their discriminatory policies. Wall can’t wear a mask because he suffers from Generalized Anxiety Disorder, which gives him panic attacks and hyperventilation if his sources of oxygen are obstructed.

After Wall filed suit three months ago, he began hearing from hundreds of other Americans who have been banned from flying because of their medical conditions. Wall selected a dozen of them to join the case this week to represent the class of tens of millions of Americans who have been illegally forced to muzzle themselves by the defendants since May 2020. The group includes a worker in Alaska who has to fly regularly on Alaska Airlines to the remote North Slope oilfields, a New York City businessman who has had to drive more than 25,000 miles during the pandemic because airlines won’t let him fly, a Missouri man who was removed from a Southwest Airlines flight for not masking, a family from Maine who couldn’t use Southwest tickets because of the carrier’s ban on medical exemptions, and an American couple who reside in Israel who regularly fly back and forth to California to visit family.

Added as a defendant Monday is a group described as “Numerous Unnamed Executives of the 7 Airlines.” The plaintiffs expect to learn the names of these executives during the litigation. The new defendant class consists of top airline officials who the plaintiffs allege conspired to interfere with their civil rights by banning all disabled passengers who can’t wear a face mask from flying and/or knew of the conspiracy, had the power to stop it, but failed to act.

Delta CEO Ed Bastian is targeted for showing animus toward the disabled, relegating them to second-class citizenship by telling them they can’t travel.

“We’ve been steadily and rather aggressively stepping up our enforcement of the mask policy. You cannot board a Delta plane unless you have a mask on. If you board the plane and insist on not wearing a mask, we insist that you do not fly Delta,” Bastian said last year. Plaintiffs contend Bastian showed his animus for the disabled when he “urged people who are considering flying without a mask to consider traveling with other airlines that have fewer restrictions, to figure out other means of traveling, or to simply not travel at all.”

Southwest CEO Gary Kelly, Frontier CEO Barry Biffle, Spirit CEO Ted Christie, Southwest Vice President Bob Waltz, Southwest Vice President Sonya Lacore, and Delta Chief Customer Experience Officer Bill Lentsch are also named as likely co-conspirators.

“The evidence plaintiffs present in this Amended Complaint – supported by 525 exhibits attached hereto – is indisputable that all defendants since Summer 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic have illegally discriminated against millions of flyers with disabilities in refusing to grant any mask exemptions and/or requiring such an onerous exemption process that travelers 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,” according to the complaint. “The defendants have also illegally failed to give all passengers – whether disabled or not – the legally guaranteed option under the Food, Drug, & Cosmetic Act to refuse to use a medical device (face mask) not approved by the Food & Drug Administration or allowed only under an Emergency Use Authorization.”

The amended complaint comes three weeks after the airlines filed arguments not denying their actions banning disabled travelers from flying but relying on legal technicalities to try to avoid liability.

All seven carriers filed motions to dismiss the lawsuit Aug. 23 asserting they are immune from being sued under the Air Carrier Access Act, a federal law protecting disabled airline passengers from discrimination.

“These airlines aren’t going to avoid legal culpability for banning tens of millions of Americans who can’t tolerate wearing face coverings from using the nation’s aviation system,” Wall said. “I’ve offered to work with all seven carriers on a consent decree to halt their illegal behavior, but they have refused. They must obey the Air Carrier Access Act and offer mask exemptions without mandating numerous illegal steps such as advance notice, COVID-19 testing, and producing a doctor’s letter.”

This case is the first in the nation to challenge airline policies that make it practically impossible to obtain an exemption from the Federal Transportation Mask Mandate. Wall, who is fully vaccinated, is also suing President Biden and five federal agencies for illegally putting the FTMM into place. Read more about that case: Wall v. CDC.

Download: Amended Complaint, Exhibits 1-100, Exhibits 101-150, Exhibits 151-200, Exhibits 201-275, Exhibits 276-350, Exhibits 351-400, Exhibits 401-443, and Exhibits 444-525.

The case is Wall v. Southwest Airlines, No. 6:21-cv-1008, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida Orlando Division.

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Read: 114 scientific studies and medical articles showing how masks are totally ineffective in reducing the transmission of COVID-19 and other respiratory viruses but cause harms to human health