Passenger sues JetBlue claiming her stage 4 cancer returned after she wasn’t allowed to fly with her French Bulldog
A California woman is suing JetBlueclaims that the airline’s refusal to allow her emotional support dog to travel with her last year led to the recurrence of her stage 4 cancer. According to lawsuitThe woman and her husband claim JetBlue also violated the Americans with Disabilities Act when a crew member kicked them off the flight, forcing them to rush to find a new home, the Independence report.
When Peter and Oksana Kiritchenko originally booked their tickets, the couple said they filed the required U.S. Department of Transportation Animal Air Transport Form with JetBlue. While their outbound flight went smoothly, when they tried to board the return flight, they were told that the only way Pier would be allowed on board was if one of them moved to the main cabin.
“Plaintiffs had an urgent need to return home (Ms. Kiritchenko is a cancer patient and had to be in Los Angeles for a medical check-up), so they agreed,” the lawsuit states.
Oksana agreed, but then a flight attendant asked her to put Pier in a “much smaller” bag. When it didn’t fit, the plane returned to the gate, and they were forced to find a new flight. The first available flight was out of Miami the next day, requiring them to travel from Fort Lauderdale to Miami and rent a hotel room for the night. The good news was, Delta had no problem letting Pier fly with them.
In the lawsuit, Peter and Oksana Kiritchenko said they experienced “inexplicable levels of humiliation and cruel ridicule” when JetBlue refused to let their dog travel with them in first class. They also said their “federally protected right to travel with a service animal on board was violated.”
The lawsuit goes on to claim that Oksana Kiritchenko, “although a stage 4 cancer patient, was in remission prior to [to] events described above. These events caused Ms. Kiritchenko an extreme amount of stress. Upon returning home, she went to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Test results showed that her mean tumor molecular weight (‘MTM/ml’) had increased to 0.59. Several previous tests had shown a test result of 0.00.”
Whether these claims will be admissible in court remains to be seen. As Live and Let’s Fly point out, Air Carrier Access Act governing flight issues, not the ADA. The complaint also clearly switches between calling Pier a service animal and an emotional support animal, making it difficult to know whether the dog should be considered a service animal or not. Under the ACAA, JetBlue would be required to accommodate a trained service dog but not an emotional support animal, and JetBlue’s website states that dogs are not allowed in first class.
As for her cancer returning, it’s hard to see how Oksana can prove that it had anything to do with the stress she was under. Crazier things have happened before, though, and we’ll be following this lawsuit as it unfolds.
