A fashion executive is suing British Airways after she claimed that the airline had refused to let her board a flight with two dogs that she says she needs for emotional support.
Sharon Kao claims that a member of airline staff shouted at her in a crowded Paris terminal and told her that he did not believe she had a disability.
Ms Kao, who previously worked at Estée Lauder and Burberry, is director of finance and planning for Effy Jewelry, which has been worn by Jennifer Lopez and Taylor Swift.
She is seeking an unspecified sum for emotional distress caused by her “humiliating” treatment. The incident is said to have taken place when Ms Kao and her husband, Brendan Mahoney, tried to board a flight from Paris to Newark, New Jersey, in July 2015.
In documents filed in New York last week, Ms Kao said that she suffered from “a disability requiring her to be accompanied by her emotional support animals”.
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The couple, who live in a $2 million apartment in Manhattan and were travelling business class, said they had a letter from her doctor explaining this and had been allowed to take her maltese puppies, Opus and Ace, on the outbound flight. In the letter Dr Jeremy Stoepker states that Ms Kao has problems with “deep anxiety and panic disorder, especially while travelling” and that being able to fly with her dogs was crucial to her health.
She says that when she went to check in for the return leg a supervisor told her the document was not sufficient and “proceeded to scream [at her] in front of her husband”.
She claims that she showed the supervisor the section of BA’s website which dealt with disabilities but was told: “I don’t care what it says. I am in charge and I decide if you can fly on my airline”.
According to Ms Kao’s complaint, she then had trouble breathing and asked for medical attention several times before another passenger stepped in to help her when she was “at the verge of fainting”.
She claimed that the supervisor continued to harangue her and after she gave the two dogs to her husband while she was being treated by paramedics, the supervisor told her: “See, I knew you did not need the dogs.”
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Ms Kao was taken to hospital for medical checks and was released and flew home later.
The lawsuit says that the US Department of Transportation investigated the incident after she made a complaint and concluded that OpenSkies, the airline owned by BA with which she was due to fly, had breached federal regulations by not allowing her to board.
Ms Kao claims that she continues to suffer from “mental anguish, severe emotional distress, loss of enjoyment of life, and other emotional damages” because of the actions of the airline and its staff.
A British Airways spokeswoman said: “We do not comment on litigation.”