(UnitedVoice.com) – A fired flight attendant is suing her former airline, alleging racism. The air carrier said it terminated Chelsia Blackmon for safety reasons because she couldn’t fit into a crew seat, but she’s claiming her employer discriminated against her because of her race.
Spirit Airlines hired Blackmon as a flight attendant last summer, and she completed her training and certification process. However, when the airline assigned her to the crew of an Airbus 319 on September 3, 2021, a problem emerged — she was too large to fasten the seat belt in her jump seat.
A fired flight attendant told to fit into a “too small” jump seat is suing her former employer, Spirit Airlines, on the grounds of racial discrimination https://t.co/Thn68unky9
— Independent.ie (@Independent_ie) December 10, 2022
The company ordered her off the plane and placed her on administrative leave for safety reasons before asking her to participate in an investigative meeting on September 13. On October 8, airline representatives asked her to prove she could buckle herself into a jump seat, but she failed again. Blackmon says the seat was too small. Since she couldn’t secure herself safely, the airline terminated her in early November.
Now, Blackmon has filed suit against Spirit Airlines in the US District Court for southern Florida, alleging unlawful employment practices caused her “mental anguish and suffering.” Blackmon, who is black, admits the company gave her from September 3 to October 12 to lose enough weight to do her job, but she claims the company allowed a white woman recruited around the same time she was several months to slim down enough to meet the jumpseat requirement. Blackmon insists the company discriminated against her because of her race and wants back pay and punitive damages against the airline.
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