Month: November 2021

The U.S. Department of Transportation determined JetBlue Airways and Southwest Airlines violated federal law when they refused to grant a disabled Virginia man mask exemptions, a win for Americans with medical conditions battling the airlines over their extremely restrictive policies on face coverings.

DOT found JetBlue violated the Air Carrier Access Act by failing to provide an accommodation to a passenger with a disability with respect to the carrier’s mask policy for Kleanthis Andreadakis’ October 2020 request to fly maskless from Richmond, Virginia, to Boston, Massachusetts, for the birth of his first granddaughter.

A disabled Missouri veteran asked a federal appeals court Wednesday to order the Transportation Security Administration to reinstate his Pre-Check membership, which the agency suspended three weeks after he sued it to overturn the Federal Transportation Mask Mandate. Pre-Check allows known travelers who register with TSA to use expedited airport security lanes.

Anthony Eades, 40, of Warsaw, Missouri, has been a Pre-Check member for five years. He’s part of a group of 13 disabled flyers plus a former flight attendant from nine states and the District of Columbia who filed six lawsuits Oct. 19 around the country charging TSA with exceeding its legal authority by continuing to extend a requirement that all public-transportation passengers don face masks.

Then on Nov. 10, the agency sent him a letter stating “As a result of recurrent checks and based on a comprehensive background check, TSA was unable to determine that you pose a sufficiently low risk to transportation and national security to continue to be eligible for expedited airport security screening through the TSA Pre-Check Application Program.”