A blind man and his guide dog were kicked off a Long Island-bound flight, sparking outrage from fellow passengers who were horrified over the crew’s shabby treatment of the disabled traveler.
Bellport, LI, resident Albert Rizzi said he and his dog Doxy were following all the flight attendant’s directions and quietly sitting, ready for their short US Airways flight from Philadelphia to MacArthur Airport on Wednesday night.
The 9-year-old Lab was under his seat, Rizzi said, but the loving pooch got restless as the plane sat for 90 minutes on the runway before the scheduled hour-long flight at 8:30 p.m.
“My dog had been under the seat for an hour and a half, and he needed to be near me, touch me,” Rizzi told The Post. “This is the relationship between a guide dog and his handler.”
Rizzi thought everything was under control and the plane, despite multiple delays, was about to depart.
“The plane was in the queue to take off when the pilot said we have a problem we need to address,” said Rizzi, 49. “I was that problem. I had no idea he was talking about me.”
When a TSA agent boarded, Rizzi assumed the flight was canceled due to mechanical problems.
“Security came on and I thought they’re here to help the blind guy off first, but then I realized no one else was coming,” Rizzi said.
Rizzi and Doxy’s removal didn’t sit well with his 30 or so fellow passengers. “After he [Rizzi] was removed, people on board began to voice their opinion,” said passenger Carl Beiner, a 43-year-old construction manager. “Everyone was saying, ‘You’re 100-percent wrong.’ There was not a single person backing the stewardess. Every single person on that flight was behind the blind guy.”
The crew apparently didn’t appreciate the passengers’ displeasure.
“When we, the passengers, realized what was going on, we were, like, ‘Why is this happening? He’s not a problem. What is going on?’ ” passenger Frank Ohlhorst told Philadelphia TV stations. “The captain came out of the cockpit, and he basically asked us all to leave the aircraft.”
A US Airways spokeswoman blamed the confrontation entirely on Rizzi: “As a result of his disruptive behavior, the crew returned to the gate and removed Mr. Rizzi and his service dog from the flight.”
Rizzi insisted Doxy was always well-behaved on board and posed no safety threat. But he admitted dropping f-bombs on his way off the plane.
“I felt dejected,” Rizzi said. “When I was escorted off the plane I did use some colorful language that began with an f and s.”
Most of the displaced passengers were put on a bus that pulled into MacArthur at 2:30 a.m.
Rizzi was traveling home from California, where he’d been working for his nonprofit My Blind Spot, aimed at creating more workplace and school opportunities for visually impaired Americans.
Additional reporting by David K. Li