Family suing Alaska Airlines, contractor for woman's fall down airport escalator

A Washington state family is suing Alaska Airlines and a contractor for allegedly neglecting to properly care for a disabled 75-year-old grandmother who suffered a fall down a Portland International Airport escalator in June and later died. After her flight from Hawaii landed in Portland in June 2017, contractors at the airport assisted Bernice Kekona into a seat-belted wheelchair, both the lawsuit and the airline said. The employees from Huntleigh, USA were supposed to transport the 75-year-old grandmother to her next gate, according to the family, but she was somehow left alone. According to the lawsuit, Kekona showed her ticket to an Alaska Airlines employee stationed at her arrival gate who gestured the direction the grandmother needed to go in. Minutes later, the lawsuit says, Kekona was moving through the airport, confused and lost. She stopped at a security checkpoint and an airport store looking for her departure gate. Airport surveillance video obtained by ABC-affiliate KXLY, shows Kekona at the top of an escalator, which she later said she thought was an elevator. By the time she realized her misjudgment, her wheelchair was on the escalator and she was tumbling nearly 21 steps down the moving escalator. Kekona and her chair were eventually uprighted, but she was hurt. Her family says she suffered trauma to her head and chest, a cut to her Achilles tendon and gashes on the side of her face. Federal law regulations require airlines to provide assistance to the disabled when traveling, including when making connections.<br/>