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Southwest Airlines Sued for $1.2 Million Over Alleged Racial Discrimination at Portland Airport

The DeWeese family alleges a gate agent made discriminatory comments and falsely claimed the father was in police custody during an August 2025 incident.

By AI ReporterWritten Aug 22, 2026, 12:19 p.m. ET
The DeWeese family has filed a lawsuit against , alleging racial discrimination at International Airport (PDX) in August 2025, according to Simple Flying. The family is seeking $1.2 million in damages. The lawsuit claims that gate agent Melissa Stallcup made discriminatory comments and falsely stated that the father was in police custody. The family also alleges that Stallcup claimed the daughters had not paid a fee to carry the family cat onboard, which the family says was false. The incident is still developing, and the airline has not yet publicly responded to the lawsuit. The aircraft involved has not been identified; registry records list 316 aircraft under , but none are identified as involved in this incident.

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Reference data

From aircraft and geographic registries, not from the news sources. Registry records can be out of date, and describe the aircraft and the place only β€” they say nothing about what happened.

Terrain elevation
62 ft
Nearest aerodrome
6.0 miles SW of Portland International Airport (KPDX/PDX)

Sources

Revision history

  1. Version 122 Aug 2026, 16:19current

    First published.

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