DALLAS (WBAP/KLIF News) – The attorney for the woman who was dragged off of a Southwest Airlines flight last week said his client was racially profiled.
Anila Daulatzai is a Muslim professor at Harvard and was traveling to Los Angeles on September 26th, when she was asked to get off the place after telling the crew about her pet allergy.
She told ‘Good Morning America’ that she told that flight attendants she could sit away from the animals on board but the captain had her removed.
“A lack of conflict resolution skills with them. There’s something…they just didn’t trust me. I was a brown woman with a hoodie,” he said.
Southwest said the woman claimed that her allergy was life threatening. According to the airline’s policy, allows it to deny a passenger boarding if animals are on board.
Daulatzai disputes Southwest’s claim and said she never said her allergy was a matter of life and death.
“I was calmly explaining its not life threatening over and over again. I even gave options,” she said.
Law enforcement forcibly removed her from the plane at the Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport when she refused to leave on her own.
Her attorney Arjun S. Sethi said that his client’s reputation could be tarnished.
“We fear that when you Google her the first thing that is going to come up is these charges which we plan to contest,” he said.
Daulatzai is facing disturbing the peace, resisting arrest and other charges.
After the incident Southwest Airlines released an official statement:
“We are disheartened by the way this situation unfolded and the Customer’s removal by local law enforcement officers. We publicly offer our apologies to this Customer for her experience and we will be contacting her directly to address her concerns. Southwest Airlines was built on Customer Service, and it is always our goal for all Customers to have a positive experience.”
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