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American Morning

Interview of Joe Dabney, Bruce South

Aired April 19, 2002 - 09:21   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: If you travel, as I know most of you are, airlines are known to misplace luggage from time to time but rarely are they accused of losing a passenger. My next guest hasn't seen wife since last December when she vanished while changing planes at the Dallas-Ft. Worth Airport. Seventy-year-old Margie Dabney has Alzheimer's disease and her husband Joe Dabney claims that American Airlines is responsible for her disappearance. And yesterday Dabney announced and his lawyer announced they are suing the airline.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRUCE SOUTH, PLAINTIFFS' ATTORNEY: This morning we filed a $10 million lawsuit against American Airlines for their gross negligence, for their breach of their contracts, for their incompetence, if you will, and losing the wife of Mr. Dabney.

JOE DABNEY: I would like to just find my wife, and I pray I find her. And (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and hope a miracle helps me find my wife, if it is the last time I do. I know I ain't got long to be here, but I pray and trust I see her before I go. Thank you very much.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: And joining us this morning from Bakersfield, California, Joe Dabney and his attorney -- Bruce, is your last name "Smith" or "South?" There were a couple of different references a couple different ways here?

SOUTH: South, like the direction.

ZAHN: OK. Thank you very much gentlemen for joining us this morning. Mr. Dabney, we just heard Bruce announce that you're suing American Airlines for $10 million because you think they are responsible for your wife's having gone missing. Why do you think it's the airline's fault?

DABNEY: Because when I told them that she was going they kept on trying to push me away. And I asked them, please give my wife and they kept on pushing me. And I got to the front and he told me my wife was right behind us. I couldn't see how she was behind us and I didn't never see her. I asked him where she were, they told me went to the bathroom. Then that's when we got into it. And they started pushing my and got that guy talking. I couldn't understood what he said. ZAHN: Bruce, describe to us when you got into that, what did that mean? You had -- Mr. Dabney had actually asked the airlines to escort her to another plane as she changed planes?

SOUTH: Well it's my understanding that Dabney's paid for escort services and had escort services throughout their other travels. At the time when they landed in Dallas the escorts that were supposed to meet them didn't make the gate. Apparently they went to different gate or another gate by mistake. And it left the Dabney's there without any direction in terms of help to get to their next gate. Mr. Dabney was taken away by an individual who came subsequent to their landing who we believe spoke no English and could not understand Mr. Dabney and Margie Dabney was left there unattended at the gate.

ZAHN: So what do you think happened to her?

SOUTH: Well we do know that she somehow made it out to the airline property outside of the terminal, which we understand is a secured area. And she was seen by -- she had two sightings on December 5, and then another sighting by another pilot taking off from the airport on December 7. So we know at least for two days she probably wondered around some service secured area of the airport and after that last sighting, on December 7, there's be no trace of Margie Dabney.

ZAHN: I wanted to read for both of you now a response that American Airlines gave us when we asked them to provide a guest for us on the show and they said, "we have not seen the lawsuit. Normally we don't comment on pending litigation. We have apologized repeatedly to the family. There are a lot of questions that remain. We continue to search for answers but we don't know what happened that late morning on December 5 that apparently allowed Ms. Dabney to wander off."

What are some of the unanswered questions they're talking about here, Bruce?

SOUTH: Well it's a good question because I know recently a 767- Jet Liner in Los Angeles was able to make its way out on to the municipal roads in Los Angeles. I think it broke through a fence and in reading that story the American Airlines said we don't know what happened. And it's the same thing with Ms. Dabney. Their repeated response is, we don't know what happened but yet they won't answer questions with regards to surveillance tapes. They won't answer questions regarding incident reports or interviews that they've done.

With the people that apparently were supposed to be there to help the Dabney's or the people that I guess monitor the areas in which Mrs. Dabney had to go through in order to get outside. So they won't acknowledge that there's some wrongdoing on their part. And the questions that I believe that they want to have answered is, are questions that deal with issues that they've raised regarding the Dabney's somehow working together to create this situation against the airlines.

We've been told by American Airlines that they believe that some members of the Dabney family had something to do with Marge Dabney's disappearance. And those would be the questions that I, at least, understand the airlines want to try to find out. We think that, that is ...

ZAHN: Well we're hoping and maybe by showing some of these pictures to this national audience maybe someone will have seen Mrs. Dabney at some point after that December 5 date. Mr. Dabney thank you for joining us to talk about this lawsuit and Bruce South we appreciate your time as well.

SOUTH: Thank you Paula.

DABNEY: Thank you.

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