Alaska state Sen. Lora Reinbold.Photo: Becky Bohrer/AP/Shutterstock
Days after being recorded in an altercation with airline staff about their enforcement of masks, Alaska state Sen. Lora Reinbold has been banned from flying aboard Alaska Airlines.
Airline spokesman Tim Thompson told media outlets including theAnchorage Daily News: “We have notified Senator Lora Reinbold that she is not permitted to fly with us for her continued refusal to comply with employee instruction regarding the current mask policy.”
The news that Reinbold had been barred from the airline came days after she was filmed at the Juneau airport, where she had reportedly refused to wear a mask properly, according to The Alaska Landmine, whichfirst publishedthe video on Thursday.
As she attempts to enter the boarding area, another employee steps in to tell her he cannot let her enter the plane unless she pulls her mask above her nose.
Reinbold then asks the employee his name before the video ends. She said in a subsequent statement on social media, “I was reasonable with all Alaska Airlines employees.”
The airline did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
“Mask bullies in full force on Alaskans Airlines,” she wrote in the November post. “All because a scaredy cat Karen whined loudly and was a Tattle tail when I took my dumb worthless suffocating mask off, a bit longer than she wanted, for my food and drink.”
In that post, Reinbold suggested masks were not a useful preventative measure — despite the health consensus otherwise — and accused the airline of “mask tyranny.”
Both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization recommend masks for the general public, andstudies have supportedthe efficacy of masks in stopping the spread ofCOVID-19.
Even as some states and local governments have dropped mask mandates, many companies continue to enforce mask-wearing, which iswithin their legal right, according to experts.
Reinbold’s ban poses a logistical challenge, as Alaska Airlines operates the only regular flights to the state capital from Anchorage, where she lives, according to theDaily News.
On Sunday, according to a post on her Facebook page, Reinbold used a car and a ferry to travel to the capital — a trip that likely tookupwards of 14 hours, according toThe Washington Post, and coincided with her husband’s birthday.
In the statement to her Facebook page on Sunday, Reinbold said she believed her ban “should be confidential,” claiming that there was “no due process” before the decision was made.
She continued: “I was reasonable with all Alaska Airlines employees. I have been flying on Alaska Air for decades amd am an MVP gold. I inquired about mask exemption with uptight employees at the counter … I was respectful of Alaska Airlines policies. We had a pleasant safe flight with happy flight attendants and great talented pilots.
“I hope to be on an Alaska Airlines flight in the near future.”
source: people.com
