Woman says wheelchair was broken on American Airlines flight: 'Thrown under the plane like luggage'

Lauren Holter
A woman who uses a power wheelchair says airlines should treat chairs like the “invaluable” items they are. (Photo: Ariella Barker via Storyful)
A woman who uses a power wheelchair says airlines should treat chairs like the “invaluable” items they are. (Photo: Ariella Barker via Storyful)

A woman who uses a power wheelchair posted a photo to Facebook showing her chair fully reclined after she placed it with checked luggage on a flight. Ariella Barker wrote that her chair wouldn’t turn on when it was returned to her after the flight, despite being “fully operational” when she handed it over to American Airlines.

Barker, a disability activist and attorney, was flying from Charlotte, N.C., to New York City for a conference, she told Storyful. She said she told American Airlines employees not to touch the toggles on her chair when she gave it to them at the gate to put in the plane’s baggage hold. But when she landed in New York, the battery fuse switch on her chair was turned off and jammed, according to her comments on the Facebook post.

Barker commented on the post later with an update that the chair was temporarily fixed and the airline would “permanently fix it” when she got home. American Airlines also offered her a flight voucher, according to Storyful.

American Airlines took my chair fully operational. Now it’s broken and won’t even turn on.

Posted by Ariella Barker on Friday, February 22, 2019

“The fact that our chairs are thrown under the plane like luggage is unacceptable,” Barker told Storyful. “If they’re going to stow it underneath, the least they could do is treat it like the invaluable thing that it is.”

American Airlines said in a statement provided to Yahoo Lifestyle that it was made aware of the Facebook post.

“We take extra care of mobility devices transported on American Airlines, and it is extremely rare to receive a report of a broken and/or damaged wheelchair,” the statement said. “If a wheelchair is broken and/or damaged during transport, our standard protocol is to offer a loaner wheelchair, and to ensure the wheelchair is repaired at our expense.”

Even though the chair was temporarily fixed, people on Facebook were frustrated that Barker had to deal with a broken chair at all.

“Another reason I’m afraid to travel,” one person wrote.

“I have been thinking about you and this very difficult situation all day, and am so glad it was fixed!” another commented. “I hope the rest of your efforts at a proper resolution are successful. This was so unacceptable.”

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