Marine vet with prosthetics legs was kicked out of exit row seat by Delta crew: lawsuit

A double-amputee Marine veteran with prosthetics legs was dealt a humiliating “blow” when a Delta flight crew forced him to move from an exit row seat – despite being built like a linebacker and serving as a Long Island cop, a new lawsuit claims.

Suffolk County cop Matias Ferreira, 36, was on a plane ready for takeoff at JFK Airport on May 17 – but Delta staff allegedly told him he couldn’t stay in the exit row, which is reserved for fliers who could need to jump into action in the event of an emergency, according to the lawsuit filed Monday.

“I don’t want the kids that I’ve worked with in a capacity that have prosthetics to ever feel like that they can’t do something because somebody said ‘hey you’re a liability’ and that’s essentially what I felt like that day,” he told The Post.

“I felt like I was viewed as a liability, not as a United States marine, not as a police officer, not as a father of two, not as a person who golfs and skydives and shoots and does all sorts of stuff.”

Ferreira, who lost his legs when he stepped on an IED while serving in Afghanistan in 2011, said he was traveling to Atlanta to surprise his god daughter and typically likes to sit in the aisle seat of the emergency row exit because it provides more legroom.

The well-built married father of two was wearing shorts that day, which he believes landed him on the crew’s radar.

Flight attendants ask travelers in that row if they can handle helping out in case there is a problem with the plane, but instead a crew member told him he had to move somewhere else, the lawsuit alleges.

Ferreira said he told the flight attendant his job credentials, that he’s sat in an exit row seat many times and was ready to assist in case of an emergency.

But the flight attendant insisted he switch seats after speaking with the pilot, who also told Ferreira he needed to move, pointing to Federal Aviation Administration guidelines, the lawsuit claims.

Ferreira ultimately sat in another seat during the flight, according to the suit.

The series of alleged events left the veteran humiliated and fuming.

“It kind of feels that I was stripped away from all those things that took me a long time to accomplish,” said Ferreira, who has been a cop for 10 years.

He noted he looked through a safety pamphlet on his return flight that even shows a drawing of a man with a prosthetic leg helping during an emergency, leaving him more stunned.

The lawsuit is seeking unspecified damages, but Ferreira and his lawyer, Norman Steiner, of The Steiner Law Firm, said the legal action filed in state Supreme Court in Queens is more to send a message to Delta that capable fliers with prosthetics shouldn’t be treated differently.

“God forbid the plane does go down or something happens, you want somebody like me in that exit row,” the cop said. “You want someone who is used to the chaos.”

Delta did not immediately return an email seeking comment Monday evening.

While FAA regulations state an airline can remove a person who lacks strength or mobility from the special exit row seats, Steiner said the actions by the flight crew were arbitrary and discriminatory because his client is fully capable.

Steiner said his client received a letter from Delta acknowledging he shouldn’t have been moved from his seat and offering a voucher.

The letter, dated May 29, from Delta to Ferreira — and provided to The Post by Steiner — states in part, “For clarification, passengers using prosthetics are not prohibited from sitting in an exit row.”

“So long as the passenger verbally communicates their willingness and ability to assist in an
evacuation should one become necessary, the passenger should be allowed to remain in the
exit row,” the letter states.

The lawsuit accuses Delta of bad hiring practices and employee training, as well as subjecting Ferreira to emotional distress.

Steiner, who lost much of his leg in a motorcycle accident years ago, said Ferreira’s ordeal was a “devastating blow” for a veteran who has to work hard to become a police officer.

He argued Ferreira is in incredible shape and the type of person fellow passengers would want on a plane if the flight goes haywire.

“It’s a spiritual amputation,” Steiner said. “And there’s no prosthetic for that. They don’t have a prosthetic that can give you back your sense of self and your sense of self.”