Former Southwest Airlines flight attendant Chelsea Blackmon is filing a job discrimination lawsuit against the airline after she couldn’t adjust to a folding seat.
The lawsuit was filed in South Florida District Court on November 16, 2022, with Blackmon seeking damages to cover back wages, compensatory damages and punitive damages.
Blackmon was able to complete Southwest Airlines flight attendant training. The course required trainees to demonstrate that they could buckle up and adjust to a foldable seat within a certain amount of time. A folding seat is a folding seat that flight attendants can sit on during takeoff and landing of a flight.
Although Blackmon was able to buckle up on a folding seat during her training, she failed to do so on a September 2021 flight. Flight attendants are not allowed to use seat belt extenders on folding seats, so Blackmon got out and was unable to do her job on the flight.
Paddle Your Own Kanoo reported that Blackmon “was then placed on administrative leave and following a short investigation, the airline demanded that she be able to prove she could fit in a flight attendant jump seat,” reports Aerotime.
A month later, Blackmon was reportedly asked to secure herself on a folding seat that was “too small for her.”
Blackmon says the airline’s move discriminated against her as a black woman and insisted a white colleague in the same situation were given more time to adjust to her jump seat.
Calling the move “wilful and malicious” and showing “reckless disregard” for her civil rights, Blackmon accused Spirit Airlines of giving her less time to adjust to the folding seat because of her race.
Blackmon says her dismissal violates the Federal Civil Rights Act and the Florida Civil Rights Act.
The current status of the case is ongoing.