Jennifer Jaspers had flown alone dozens of times.
She is 52 years old, lives in Omaha, and this time she just wanted to get to North Carolina to celebrate her birthday with her father and meet a new cousin. But at the American Airlines counter, an employee asked her whether she could leave a building on her own. The question caught her off guard, and she answered “I don’t know”. That was enough for a supervisor to decide that she needed a safety assistant to travel.
“I started crying at the airport”, said Jaspers, who has Down syndrome. Her mother, Cindy Garrett, says there had never been a previous incident and that her daughter knows how to use her phone and ask for help if she needs it. The airline cited its safety assistant policy and offered the companion at no cost, but the family ended up spending 1.800 dollars so Jennifer’s father could fly from North Carolina and fulfill that role.
The director of the Down Syndrome Alliance questioned the criteria used to decide who can fly alone and who cannot.