Blind amputee claims American Airlines flight attendants told her to 'hop or scoot' to the bathroom, forced her to undress in front of other passengers and then use the lavatory with the door open

Tammy Spears, a resident of Idaho, filed the lawsuit against American Airlines

A lawsuit has claimed that American Airlines flight attendants told a blind woman with one leg to 'hop' or 'scoot' down the aisle to use the aircraft lavatory.

Tammy Spears, a resident of Idaho, filed the lawsuit against American Airlines and CheapOAir booking service on Monday in federal court in Utah, claiming infliction of emotional distress.

The lawsuit claims that Spears' four-hour flight from Salt Lake City to Charlotte, North Carolina was not equipped with an aisle chair for her to use to get to the lavatory.

In a statement to DailyMail.com, American Airlines said: 'We take the safety and comfort of our customers very seriously and we're committed to providing a positive experience for everyone who travels with us.

'We have been in contact with Ms. Spears and her family on multiple occasions, and we will address the allegations in the lawsuit in due course.'

An American Airline flight flies in to Salt Lake City International Airport in a file photo. Spears claims in a lawsuit that the airline failed to provide an aisle chair on her August 2019 flight

According to the suit, Spears was traveling from her home in Idaho to visit relatives in Richmond, Virginia in August 2019.

Spears is legally blind, and her left leg was amputated in 2018 for unspecified health reasons, the lawsuit says. She did not have a prosthesis at the time of the flight, and relied upon a wheelchair for mobility.

The suit claims that American Airlines advised her to fly out of Salt Lake City due to the airport's accessibility accommodations, and that Spears' family advised the airline at least four days before the flight that she would need access to an aisle chair on her flight.

However, once the plane was in flight and Spears asked for assistance getting to the lavatory, flight attendants informed her that no aisle chair had been loaded for the flight, the lawsuit says.

The flight attendants suggested that Spears 'hop' on her right leg to get to the facilities, but Spears became exhausted and was unable to hop, the suit claims. 

'So they came up with the idea of having first class on the right hand side get up out of their seats and stand back in the plane and hoping I could scoot from chair to chair to chair,' Spears told KMTV. 

Spears is legally blind, and her left leg was amputated in 2018 for unspecified health reasons, the lawsuit says. She did not have a prosthesis at the time of the flight

'I tried to explain to her, I can't walk to the chair, I'm an amputee. So then, they said okay well, how about getting on the floor, and that's what I did. I crawled or scooted on my bottom all the way through first class, people staring at me looking at me, this nurse did get up, she was a passenger, she was wonderful.' 

The lawsuit claims that Spears' ordeal did not end there, however, as she was too exhausted to raise herself upon reaching the forward lavatory.

The passenger who had been helping the flight attendants stacked up some luggage to raise Spears up, and flight attendants began disrobing her in front of the first class passengers, according to the suit.

Then, the attendants insisted that she use the lavatory with the door open, the suit states, for reasons that are unspecified.

The complaint says that Spears 'was too humiliated and exhausted, and her need had become too urgent, to resist'.

After Spears had finished using the bathroom, she advised the flight attendants that she was too exhausted to get back to her seat.

The complain lays out Spears' claims in her lawsuit against American Airlines and CheapOAir

The complaint states that flight attendants 'devised another scheme' to get Spears back to her seat which involved Spears 'sitting on a flat of some kind and being dragged inch by inch back to her seat.'

Alarmed by these developments, a first class passenger offered to trade seats with Spears for the remainder of the flight, obviating the need for the alleged dragging scheme.

The suit accused American Airlines of subjecting Spears to 'pushing, lifting, dragging, falling, crawling, scooting, dropping and humiliation.'

 Spears purchased her plane ticket through CheapOAir. A representative for the parent company, Fareportal, told the Dallas Morning News in a prepared statement, 'We sympathize with Ms. Spears experience, but the conversation in this regard must be between her and the airline.'

'I can't be the only one who has a handicap you know, it's like I think about what if my mother or something was on that plane, she can't crawl on the floor, I could barely do it,' Spears told KMTV.

She expressed her gratitude to the passengers on the plane who tried to assist her, but says that American is at fault for not providing an aisle chair.  

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages in excess of $75,000.