A former flight attendant is suing Spirit Airlines, claiming she was fired because a seat belt in a plane’s jump seat did not fit around her.
Chelsia Blackmon’s attorney filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida on November 16, saying that her client was wrongfully terminated, Business Insider reported.
According to the complaint obtained by Fox Business, Blackmon was hired after she passed all the training and compliance protocols, including being able to buckle the seat belt in the jump seat. The suit noted that she had worked for several flights, including multiple Spirit Airlines Airbus 319 flights beforehand.
On September 3, 2021, Blackmon was assigned to work on an Airbus 319 flight; however, she could not buckle herself into the jump seat using the seatbelt. She was then forced to deplane.
An investigation was held and she was sent a letter on September 27 asking her to appear in person on or about October 8 to demonstrate she could fit into a jump seat, the complaint reads. At the meeting, she was again unable to buckle herself with the seat belt.
On November 3, she was fired from Spirit Airlines.
The complaint alleges that Spirit Airlines “directed her to buckle herself into a jump seat that was too small for her.”
Furthermore, the complaint claims that Blackmon, who is African-American, was the subject of racial discrimination.
The attorney writes that a “Caucasian Flight Attendant who was also in the early stages of her career and who was hired around the same time as [Blackmon], had the same issue of ‘fitting’ into the jump seat but she was given several months to fit into the jump seat.”
The complaint also alleges that Spirit Airlines was “willful” and “malicious” and disregarded her rights under the Civil Rights Act upon firing her.
Since being fired, Blackmon says she has suffered from lost wages, compensatory damage, and mental anguish.
Blackmon is requesting the court award her back pay, front pay, compensatory damages, punitive damages, attorneys’ fees costs, and other “further reliefs.” She is also requesting a trial by jury.
The lawsuit comes as Spirit Airlines was recently hit with another suit that alleges the airline recorded and intercepted users on its website, Bloomberg Law reported.
You can follow Ethan Letkeman on Twitter at @EthanLetkeman.
