the statement goes on to read, in this instance mr. rizzitive and refused to comply with crew member instructions when the flight attendant asked him to secure his service dog. as a result of his disruptive behavior the crew returned to the gate and removed mr. rizzi and his service dog from the flight. the flight was eventually canceled and we transported the passengers on the flight to islip airport in long island by bus. we apologize to the customers of the flight for the inconvenience. we continue to investigate the incident and have reached out to mr. rizzi several times but he has not responded. here with us the passenger, his attorney, and of course doxie the dog. >> first of all it is great to see you. i got to talk with you on the radio. you've been blind for how long now, since 2006 right? >> 2006 i lost my eyesight. i woke up on january 6, 2006, and was in the hospital for two months. the last month of 2005 and the first month of 2006. >> all right. this was a bad case of meningitis. >> yes. >> really difficult case. you woke up o

she gave us a written statement that reads in part, in this instance, mr. rizzi, the blind map, became disruptive and refused to comply with the crew members' instructions when the flight attendant asked him to secure his dog at his feet. as a result of his disruptive behavior, the crew return to the gate. and removed mr. rizzi and his service dog from the flight. let's get more on that. carl binder was on the flight and is live with us this afternoon. is that how it went down, karl? >> no, not even close. >> could you see it? >> yeah. he was about maybe ten rows in back of me. >> go ahead. what did you see? >> really nothing. there was no uprising as far as he was doing -- the dog was laying at his feet the whole time. there was never any real commotion in the back of the plane. >> all of a sudden you see tsa agents coming on the plane. right. >> yes. >> what did they do? >> that was after -- the steward stewardess and the person walked back him and told him he had to leave and everybody was like, why? what's going on? as far as we knew all the delays were mecha

in this instance mr. rizzidisruptive and refused to comply with crew member instructions when the flight attendant asked him to secure his service dog at his feet. we read about airlines mining customer data to go to far reaching corn towers make the customer service experience better for those who are flying on their airlines but this seems to be a fairly sensible situation. what, in your opinion, did us airways get so wrong on this one? >> you're dealing with tens of thousands of human beings. obviously none of us were on the flight so hard to say exactly what. particularly with this, what we call assistance animals, there's a lot of judgment involved and they do give the employees some flexibility. every airline has a different procedure but when you read those internal procedures and i've done it, you see there's a lot of flexibility and, you know, some people are going to make better decisions than others. >> it's interesting because one thing that neither side disputes in this scenario, when this happened

in this case mr. rizzidant asked him to secure a service dog at his feet." they say it is still under investigation. you say this isn't really what happened at all. the dog was doing what? >> mr. rizzi was sitting in the last row on the airplane. it was a little turbo prop. there was no seat in front of him. they asked him to stow the dog, put the dog away. he said, all right, what do i need to do. they said the dog has to be under the seat. the passenger sitting directly on the left of him offered, you can put the dog under my seat. so they put the dog which was a labrador, not a little dog, under the seat. the person in the seat next to him sat indian style so the dog would have plenty of room. we sat on the tarmac for a good hour, 1 1/2 hours. >> you just start getting restless. did the dog become unruly then? >> all the dog did was stick his head out so he could touch his owner's leg. from what i understand these dogs are trained to be in constant contact with their handlers. the dog was doing that. the

the us airways said mr. rizzyused to comply with the flight attendant when she is asked him to secure his service dog at his feet. as a result of his disruptive behavior, the crew returned to the gate and removed mr. rizzi. everyone else essentially rallied behind the passenger. they were disruptive in a way after they left the plane. the pilot and flight crew refused to take off and everyone got off. >> they got off on a bus. >> they got to long island where they were going. >> the larger discussion here, this makes me crazy. it seems we are losing our reasonableness, if that's even a word. the flight attendants could have made good on this and helped him out here, couldn't they have? >> you would think there's another solution, putting the dog mind another seat. they tried that earlier, it didn't work. >> the flight attendants are mean. >> you think so? >> they have to judge everybody as an individual, but we fly a lot in this business. and it does seem as though there has been somewhat of a ramping down of civi

. >> reporter: in a statement, usairways said, "mr. rizzithere was no time at all when my dog was off leash and running around. >> reporter: the 8-year-old yellow lab who slept throughout our interview seems like a docile dog. rizzi who worked in education before losing his sight said this is a teaching moment. opening the eyes of others to the challenges facing the blind. abc news, new york. >> we weren't there but you listen to that story and you say, were they really being accommodating as they could have been? u.s. airlines, by the way, are required to allow service dogs to travel in passenger cabins with their owners. >> that's right. >> unless the dog or animal is obstructing the aisle or an emergency egress, then the animal is allowed to fly with its owner. if you listen to what he said, he said he was trying to get the dog under the seat in front of him. look at the size of the dog. we all know that our seats are getting smaller by the second. so it is impossible to put your purse under the seat in front of you. forget about a beauti