An Asian American couple who have produced a number of faith-based movies say they were kicked off a Delta Air Lines flight to Houston where they were due to appear at a conference about a new movie based on the true story of three Christian prisoners.
Timothy Chey and Dr Susan Dizon-Chey were due to travel with Delta in First Class between New York LaGuardia and Houston on March 28, but things got off to a bad start when a gate agent made an assumption about their racial heritage prior to boarding flight DL1239.
According to a recently filed lawsuit, the gate agent asked Timothy Chey to speak to another passenger in Mandarin because the customer could not understand English.
Although it seemed like a simple request, Timothy is half Korean, half Japanese, and does not speak Mandarin. When Timothy told the gate agent that he couldn’t communicate with the Chinese passengers, the agent allegedly replied, “How can you not speak Mandarin?” in an apparent reference to his physical appearance.
When Timothy explained his heritage, the agent then became “very annoyed, frazzled and erratic” before allowing the couple to board the flight.
Things, however, quickly went downhill when the Cheys boarded the plane and took their seats in First Class.
Shortly after they had taken their seats, another passenger boarded and sat directly behind them with a large cello secured in the seat directly behind Timothy’s wife.
She then told the Cheys that they couldn’t recline their seats as the cello could be damaged. When the Cheys objected and then tried to find a solution by finding an alternative seat for the cello, the same gate agent allegedly boarded the plane and spoke to them in a “seething, deranged, and almost hateful tone”.
The gate agent demanded that the Cheys deplane and be rebooked on another flight, although a flight attendant intervened and offered a pair of seats in Economy as a possible alternative.
The Cheys reluctantly agreed, although not before getting into a verbal altercation with the owner of the cello. Shortly after, the same gate agent decided that the Cheys were banned from flying Delta and demanded they get off the plane.
After the gate threatened to call the police on the Cheys, Timothy says he hurriedly went to pack up his belongings, injuring his back in doing so. The lawsuit alleges that Timothy’s back injury has worsened over the last five months and that he has since become scared of flying.
After deplaning, the Cheys were then met by up to five police officers, although no legal action was taken against them. A Delta Air Line supervisor then told them that they would be banned from flying with the carrier for the rest of the day.
“Defendant’s conduct was so outrageous and so extreme and so malicious in ejecting Plaintiffs from the airplane as to go beyond all bounds of decency and to be regarded as atrocious and intolerable and a racially discriminatory action in a civilized society,” the lawsuit alleges.
“The consequences to these horrific actions by Defendants is Plaintiuffs did not want to fly again,” the complaint continues. “They cancelled many appearances for their film that suffered box office damage”.
Now, the Cheys say they are looking forward to their day in court to tell their side of the story as they sue Delta for a slew of claims, including discrimination, infliction of emotional distress, breach of contract, gross negligence, false imprisonment, and civil conspiracy.
Delta Air Lines is yet to formally respond to the lawsuit.
I hear that these two have hired lawyers from the firm, “Dewey, Cheatham and Howe”. Sum Ting Wong about this whole scenario.