14 CFR Part 382 Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability in Air Travel (Air Carrier Access Act) (with amendments issued through July 2003)

§ 382.70 Disability-related complaints received by carriers.

(a) For the purposes of this section, a disability-related complaint means a specific written expression of dissatisfaction received from, or submitted on behalf, of an individual with a disability concerning a difficulty associated with the person’s disability, which the person experienced when using or attempting to use an air carrier’s or foreign air carrier’s services.

(b) This section applies to certificated U.S. carriers and foreign air carriers operating to, from, and in the United States, conducting passenger operations with at least one aircraft having a designed seating capacity of more than 60 passengers. Foreign air carriers are covered by this section only with respect to disability-related complaints associated with any flight segment originating or terminating in the United States.

(c) Carriers shall categorize disability-related complaints that they receive according to the type of disability and nature of complaint. Data concerning a passenger’s disability must be recorded separately in the following areas: vision impaired, hearing impaired, vision and hearing impaired, mentally impaired, communicable disease, allergies (e.g., food allergies, chemical sensitivity), paraplegic, quadriplegic, other wheelchair, oxygen, stretcher, other assistive device (cane, respirator, etc.), and other disability. Data concerning the alleged discrimination or service problem related to the disability must be separately recorded in the following areas: refusal to board, refusal to board without an attendant, security issues concerning disability, aircraft not accessible, airport not accessible, advance notice dispute, seating accommodation, failure to provide adequate or timely assistance, damage to assistive device, storage and delay of assistive device, service animal problem, unsatisfactory information, and other.

(d) Carriers shall submit an annual report summarizing the disability-related complaints that they received during the prior calendar year using the form specified in Appendix A to this Part. The first report shall cover complaints received during calendar year 2004 and shall be submitted to the Department of Transportation by January 25, 2005. Carriers shall submit all subsequent reports on the last Monday in January of that year for the prior calendar year. All submissions must be made through the World Wide Web except for situations where the carrier can demonstrate that it would suffer undue hardship if it were not permitted to submit the data via paper copies, disks, or email, and DOT has approved an exception. All fields in the form must be completed; carriers are to enter ‘‘0’’ where there were no complaints in a given category. Each annual report must contain the following certification signed by an authorized representative of the carrier: ‘‘I, the undersigned, do certify that this report has been prepared under my direction in accordance with the regulations in 14 CFR Part 382. I affirm that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, this is a true, correct, and complete report.’’ Electronic signatures will be accepted.

(e) Carriers shall retain correspondence and record of action taken on all disability-related complaints for three years after receipt of the complaint or creation of the record of action taken. Carriers must make these records available to Department of Transportation officials at their request.

(f)(1) In a code-share situation, each carrier shall comply with paragraphs (c) through (e) of this section for—

(i) Disability-related complaints it receives from or on behalf of passengers with respect to difficulties encountered in connection with service it provides;

(ii) Disability-related complaints it receives from or on behalf of passengers when it is unable to reach agreement with its code-share partner as to whether the complaint involves service it provides or service its code-share partner provides; and

(iii) Disability-related complaints forwarded by another carrier or governmental agency with respect to difficulties encountered in connection with service it provides.

(2) Each carrier shall also forward to its code-share partner disability-related complaints the carrier receives from or on behalf of passengers with respect to difficulties encountered in connection with service provided by its code-sharing partner.

(g) Each carrier, except for carriers in code-share situations, shall comply with paragraphs (c) through (e) of this section for disability-related complaints it receives from or on behalf of passengers as well as disability-related complaints forwarded by another carrier or governmental agency with respect to difficulties encountered in connection with service it provides.

(h) Carriers that do not submit their data via the Web shall use the disability-related complaint data form specified in appendix A to this part when filing their annual report summarizing the disability-related complaints they received. The report shall be mailed, by the dates specified in paragraph (d) of this section, to the following address: U.S. Department of Transportation, Aviation Consumer Protection Division, 400 7th Street, SW., Room 4107, C–75, Washington, DC 20590.

[Source: 68 FR 40488, July 8, 2003]