Alaska Airlines ordered to pay $3.2m to family of woman who died after escalator fall

Alaska Airlines was ordered this week to pay $3.2m to the family of a 75-year-old woman who died after falling down an escalator in an electric wheelchair at Portland International Airport in 2017. The family of the woman, Bernice Kekona, alleged that Alaska failed to ensure she received the gate-to-gate escort the family requested multiple times. After a trial in King County Superior Court this month, a jury found Alaska violated the Air Carrier Access Act, which requires airlines to provide certain assistance for passengers with disabilities. According to the family’s court filings, Kekona and her family members had requested multiple times that she receive a gate-to-gate escort because she was elderly, hard of hearing and sometimes became confused in unfamiliar places, among other reasons. The family alleged that Alaska failed to communicate those requests to a contractor that would have provided the escort. Robert Gellatly, an attorney for the family, said Kekona’s death was “a tragic failure of communication.”<br/>