Wheelchair user sues Russian airline over required companion rule

From RIA Novosti August 7:

MOSCOW - A disabled woman in a wheelchair has filed a lawsuit against a Russian airline that refused to let her on a plane without an accompanying person.

Natalya Prisetskaya, who works for a social organization for disabled people, said Thursday she was claiming 1 million rubles ($42,500) from S7 Airlines, formerly known as Sibir, as compensation for moral and physical damage.

On June 30, Prisetskaya was preparing to take a flight from Moscow to Vladikavkaz, in the Russian republic of North Ossetia, from Domodedovo airport, but an S7 steward refused to allow her on board citing an "instruction" that she could not fly without an accompanying person.

"It was the first time I have found myself in such a situation," Prisetskaya said. "I had never thought that a disabled person could be treated so wrongly and unfairly."

S7 Airlines spokeswoman Irina Kolesnikova said the company had acted within the law when it refused to take the disabled woman aboard without an accompanying person.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev instructed the Foreign Ministry on Tuesday to sign the international convention on the rights of disabled people, adopted by the UN General Assembly December 13, 2006.

The UN describes the convention as "the first comprehensive human rights treaty of the 21st century and is the first human rights convention to be open for signature by regional integration organizations."