Two weeks after Whistleblower wrote about a White Bear Lake woman who was kicked off a Delta flight because of her medical equipment, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced a record fine of $2 million against the airline for widespread problems with its treatment of disabled passengers. The federal agency said thousands of people had complained over a two-year period and a substantial number of the violations were "egregious".
Without admitting to the violations, Delta agreed to the fine - the largest ever assessed against an airline in a case not involving safety violations. Most of the money will be redirected to improvements meant to improve the experience of passengers with disabilities, including an automated wheelchair tracking system, a customer satisfaction survey and better compliance auditing.
