Father with Alzheimer's goes missing before flight
A family is suing American Airlines after a father's struggle with Alzheimer's turned into an even greater nightmare when he vanished at New York's Laguardia Airport, reports CBS News correspondent Kris Van Cleave.
The only family 52-year-old Josaphat Dupuy had in the United States was his daughter. She's active duty military and didn't want him in a nursing home, so he was to return to his family in his native Haiti, but that didn't happen.
"We went to the first agent there and I said, 'Hey, my dad can't be alone. I need him, you know, just to make sure he gets on that plane," Keraphline Dupuy said.
She said she specifically told the agent he had Alzheimer's and dementia.
"She was like, 'Oh, no problem, that's fine. I could help you out right here,"' Dupuy said.
Dupuy and American Airlines agree her father, Josaphat, was checked in for his flight that January morning and was brought to the gate by a wheelchair attendant. He was to fly alone to Miami, where a relative was to meet him for his flight to Haiti.
But a source familiar with the incident said the airline has no record of being notified that Dupuy required special care.
When the flight left the gate, he wasn't on it.
"I thought he died because I already knew like, you know, if someone's not there, telling him to eat or drink," Dupuy said.
She said she was trying to remain as calm as possible.
"I was in denial, like, 'This can't be happening. This can't be happening,"' Dupuy said.
It's happened before. In 2013, 83-year-old Victoria Kong, who was believed to suffer from dementia-like confusion, was also flying alone, and wandered away from Washington D.C.'s Reagan National Airport. Kong was found dead days later.
"Listen, the airlines contract of carriage, it specifically says they are responsible to fly you from point A to point B, and on connecting flights to point C," CBS News travel editor Peter Greenberg said. "They're not responsible to get you to the gate and they're not responsible to have you leave the airport."
Most airlines do offer special assistance for travelers with disabilities, but generally require advance notice.
Delta's website notes, "We are not equipped to provide full monitoring while waiting at the gate." American Airlines has a disability assistance form online that includes a box for "connection assistance for customers with mental disability."
Dupuy said she was unaware of it.
"The major lesson is that here is that nobody with a mental deficiency should be allowed to fly unaccompanied by someone who doesn't know their history," Greenberg said.
Three days after missing his flight, Dupuy was found sick, cold and confused, but alive, about 20 miles away in Gerritsen Beach, New York.
The same day, police recovered his backpack near Prospect Park in Brooklyn and a medical bill that shows he also made it to a Manhattan emergency room, was treated and then released on his own.
Dupuy said she is still confused about how her dad ended up in different places, miles apart.
"The doctor told me that's he's pretty lucky to be alive," Dupuy said. "If he was out there one more day, like, he probably would've been found frozen on a corner somewhere."
She said those three days were probably the worst of her life.
Her dad spent two weeks in the ICU recovering. Dupuy said she'll be personally taking him to Haiti in December.
In a statement to "CBS This Morning" American Airlines said, "We cannot comment on the specifics of this case, since there is pending litigation. ... It is important to note that American is committed to providing a safe, pleasant travel experience for all of our customers."
Airlines do require passengers to be able to understand and comply with instructions from crew members. If they can't, that person can be denied service.