A Firsthand Account of Dornan’s Expulsion From Flight

Why would The Times go out of its way to pick out for the June 16 “Letters to the Times” Section, seven letters which were demeaning to my character and integrity over an incident of which none of the letter writers have firsthand knowledge? Plus, to add insult to literal injury, The Times never even gave the vaguest hint as to what my detractors were writing about. For example, the following words were never mentioned: major surgery, handicapped, wheelchair, crutches, doctor’s letter, hip replacement, “seat back went forward.”

Based on the personal attacks in the letters, it is obvious that the majority of the complaints were motivated by a dislike for my politics, rather than an objective analysis of what happened to me on a “red eye” night flight on April 30. Please permit me to correct some of the distortions advanced with the complicity of The Times.

Several of your letter writers labeled me “abusive” and “hotheaded.” For the record, I was neither and have formal statements from passengers confirming that. The incident took place at midnight in Row 11 of a United DC-10. I was returning to Washington, D.C., for the very first trip anywhere after total hip replacement major surgery.

To prevent my new orthopedic hip from dislocating (the severed muscles could not yet be relied on to hold the new ball and socket in place), I was under doctor’s orders to avoid sitting at a 90-degree angle, so I obtained permission from two different stewardesses to keep my seat slightly--repeat, slightly--reclined. A third stewardess, who had just been severely berated by another passenger who was being put off the flight because his seat had been sold twice, exploded just inches from my face saying that if I did not put my seat all the way forward I would be expelled from the plane. That was her opening challenge.

I tried to explain that I was recovering from recent hip replacement surgery and that two stewardesses had just given me permission to keep my seat slightly reclined, but she chose not to even hear my words. She raced to the front of the plane and returned to announce sarcastically over the intercom that the plane was taxiing back to the terminal to discharge, not a person with a health problem, but “passenger who refused to put his seat forward.” Lynch mob time.

With the help of the gentleman seated next to me, I loosened my seat belt, placed two pillows behind my back, carefully extended my healing leg, and “put my seat upright.” (Did your liberal letter writers know that?) Although flight attendant No. 3 saw that my seat was up, I was to be punished and humiliated, so the plane returned to the gate, and I was escorted on crutches to a waiting wheelchair.

While I was certainly very upset at the outrageously rude and abusive treatment, I was never personally discourteous nor did I use a single foul or harsh word--not one. (And no one knew I was a congressman until we were almost rehooked up at the gate.) My parents raised me to be warmly and sincerely courteous to anyone and everyone, particularly to those trying to offer service or assistance.

Several witnesses, including the man sitting to my right, who observed everything from the time I boarded the plane on crutches, without one offer of assistance, to the time I disembarked, have given formal statements that I acted reasonably given the verbal abuse to which I had been subjected. The majority of the passengers on the plane did not know that I was recovering from major surgery performed that same month of April or that I had been given permission from two stewardesses to keep my seat back slightly reclined or that a third stewardess had exploded in my face and that I had complied and put my seat forward. They only knew what the stewardess had snarled on the intercom and lied about after they restarted the flight.

One of your carefully selected letter writers, William C. Hawkins, of Costa Mesa, wrote, “The airlines bend over backward for disabled people. Too much so.” Now there’s compassion for the handicapped. Well, he’s wrong. Since my experience was first reported, I have been contacted by numerous disabled individuals who tell of repeated incidents over the years of rudeness and abuse during air travel. Perhaps a more newsworthy, though less sensational story for The Times, would be coverage of the problems confronting handicapped travelers. Perhaps then, people would not make such ignorant and insensitive statements.

While I certainly expected my political adversaries to exploit my temporary disability, I did not expect The Times to provide an open forum for vague and grossly misleading attacks. I would like to note that The Times hounded me for this story even though it was a month and a half old and yet could not wait one lousy extra day to contact more than one sympathetic passenger who had eyewitnessed this personal nightmare from beginning to end.

ROBERT DORNAN, U.S. Congressman