Disfigured Nurse Alleges Discrimination After Southwest Airlines Removes Her From Flight

Nurse’s Medical Condition Leads to Humiliating Incident

A Cal­i­for­nia nurse, Bri­an­na Solari, says she was kicked off a South­west Air­lines flight and dis­crim­i­nat­ed against due to her med­ical condition. 

Solari, who has neu­rofi­bro­mato­sis (NF), a genet­ic dis­or­der that caus­es non-can­cer­ous tumors to grow on her skin and ner­vous sys­tem, claims she was con­front­ed by an air­line crew mem­ber and asked to leave the plane.

Denied the Chance to Explain Her Condition

Solari, who had just under­gone a pro­ce­dure to reduce the tumors on her body, says she was not allowed to speak to the air­line’s con­tract­ed doc­tor about her con­di­tion. “I said, let me speak to the doc­tor. I was­n’t exam­ined by this physi­cian,” Solari told KCRA.

Forced to Obtain Medical Clearance

After being removed from the ini­tial flight, Solari had to obtain a let­ter from her sur­geon clear­ing her to fly, which she then showed to the air­line staff. She was then booked on a lat­er flight back to Sacramento.

Lasting Impact on Trust in the Airline

Solari says the inci­dent has changed her per­spec­tive on South­west Air­lines, and she is threat­en­ing legal action. “I don’t think I’ll ever fly them again. I think this could have been han­dled much more pro­fes­sion­al­ly,” she said.

Airline Apologizes but Offers Limited Compensation

South­west Air­lines has apol­o­gized for the inci­dent, stat­ing that they “ulti­mate­ly received clear­ance for the cus­tomer to trav­el” but were unable to do so in time for the orig­i­nal flight. The air­line offered Solari a $500 flight vouch­er and a $45 meal vouch­er, but she believes the sit­u­a­tion amount­ed to discrimination.