PORT ANGELES — A Horizon Air flight was delayed Thursday afternoon at William R. Fairchild International Airport when airline employees initially refused to let a California woman carrying nitroglycerin pills board the plane.
The incident escalated when 74-year-old Lita Bowman told airline workers she was carrying nitroglycerin heart medication as she prepared to board the noon flight to Seattle, where she was to connect to a flight to San Diego.
Eventually, Horizon Air employees allowed Bowman to board the aircraft.
But relatives of Bowman called the incident harassment and the workers overzealous.
“It’s really a strange thing to harass a little, old lady for having heart medicine,” said Bill Bennett of Port Angeles, a relative of Bowman. “Horizon Air should know about what its employees are doing.”
Horizon Air Public Affairs Manager Cheryl Temple downplayed the incident, calling it “very minor.”
“It sounds like it was a misunderstanding. We do everything we can to make things safe and sometimes mistakes are made,” Temple said. “We are trying to make things as safe as we possibly can, and I hope people understand that.”
The rest of this story appears in today’s Peninsula Daily News Clallam County edition. Click on “Subscribe” to get the PDN delivered to your home or office.