United Airlines Returns Wheelchair in Pieces

“You’re taking his legs and dismantling them and then giving them back broken…. That’s really what it’s like. This type of indignity cannot be ignored.”

According to United Airlines’ Services & Information policy with regards to travelers with special needs, “Battery-powered wheelchairs…are acceptable, but certain safety procedures must be followed in preparing the wheelchair for carriage. Reservations personnel will be happy to answer any specific questions….” Oklahoma City’s Jason Price may have to ask Reservations personnel next time he flies (if he flies with United again), if staff will return to him a box of parts, or his intact $20,000 power wheelchair.

Jason, authoring a book about Oklahomans with disabilities becoming employed, self-sufficient, and gaining independence from reliance on Social Security disability rolls, had flown from OKC to Washington D.C. for research. For Jason’s return flight, United Airlines had stowed his wheelchair with the luggage, but upon landing in Oklahoma City, rolled back out “nothing more than a seat and a set of wheels.” United later issued a statement of apologies and a promise of repair cost reimbursement at some future date.

The airline’s plan to pay him back does a little to make Jason Price happy, but he says respect is the real issue. These sorts of incidents happen remarkably frequently, especially considering the cost of flights, the fees tacked on, and in the increased scrutiny airports, air travelers and airlines undergo. Many agree all airlines could improve their service towards customers with disabilities; not just aware and attentive desk and cabin staff, but trained luggage crews or whomever might be handling wheelchairs on the tarmac or in the belly of the plane.

Dismantling a powered wheelchair, if necessary, is easy, but crew really should know how to put one back together, to return it as-was to the customer who needs it for their mobility. The Department of Transportation’s regulations document regarding “Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability in Air Travel” states that, while wheelchairs or other assistive devices may need to be disassembled by the airline for stowage, those devices must “be returned to the passenger in the condition received by the carrier.”

No further information has been reported if Jason Price has regained his mobility in his freshly-repaired, paid-for-by-United-Airlines power wheelchair, and no further statement from United has been documented. From Dave Carroll’s broken guitar to Jason Price’s dismantled remains of a wheelchair, United Airlines has not been earning good press.

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Sources:

http://www.kfor.com/news/local/kfor-airline-returns-mans-wheelchair-in-pieces-20110817,0,6355799.story

http://gizmodo.com/5832220/airline-takes-apart-dudes-20000-wheelchair-and-gives-him-back-pieces

http://www.united.com/page/article/0,6867,1040,00.htm

http://airconsumer.dot.gov/rules/382short.pdf

http://www.davecarrollmusic.com/ubg/