A Phoenix team had its wheelchairs damaged after a flight. The airline's response? A $150 travel voucher

Members of a Phoenix-based wheelchair basketball team are speaking out after a pattern of what they consider their "freedom," their "livelihood," and their "legs" being treated as an inconvenience.

Players of the Ability360 Wheelchair Suns said they were stuck on a Southwest Airlines plane for more than two hours without their wheelchairs after they took a flight earlier this month from Phoenix to Richmond for the National Wheelchair Basketball Championships.

The problems continued off the plane.

"We watched our chairs come off of the conveyor belt off of the plane and we watched them fall off the conveyor belt onto the ground. Just chair, after chair, after chair," said Justin Walker, a player for the Wheelchair Suns.

Airport workers mishandling and damaging the wheelchairs, delays to travel and apologetic travel vouchers seem to be par for the course, team members told The Arizona Republic.

The experience is not unique to the Wheelchair Suns. Thousands of mobility device damage incidents are reported to the U.S. Department of Transportation a month.

'It's sickening, to be honest with you'

The team communicated with Southwest six months before the April 10 flight, according to Walker. There were three teams on the flight and each player would be traveling with both a sport wheelchair and an everyday chair. The return flight was scheduled for April 14.

On both the departing and returning flights, team members said they experienced long delays to get off the plane and incorrect storage of their wheelchairs that led to damage.

Walker said the airline should have known what accommodations they needed to make.

Despite that they had been in contact with the airline for half a year, not enough employees were there to help reassemble the wheelchairs they had deconstructed, he said.

"It's just sickening, to be honest with you," Walker said. "It's sickening because we know we're an inconvenience when we have two chairs, we know that. That's why we try to communicate with them as much as possible to allow the situation to be as seamless as possible."

Myranda Shields, social media manager for the Wheelchair Suns, said it wasn't like losing bags, luggage or medication. Wheelchairs serve as legs.

"It's not luggage and that is the problem, they don't look at it like, I've got 300 devices people need to live and then 200 bags under there," Shields said. "They look at it like, oh, I've got 500 bags."

In response to the incident, Southwest sent out an email to the NWBA and the coaches, but they have not reached out to the people who were on the plane, according to Walker.

In an email obtained by The Republic, the airline claimed they had been in communication with the cities involved for "well over a month" and failed on its end for "several" of the people on board.

The airline stated in the email it did not communicate with many of the people and their teams about whether it could take the wheels off the chairs, and the intent was to create more space for all baggage by removing the wheels.

For the flight home, the airline said it did not want to disappoint the team on their travel home and asked to zip tie the wheels together with nametags. It also stated it would give players the option of taking their sports chairs to the gate so the wheels could be removed there. The email acknowledged the team would be flying on a "smaller" Boeing 737-700 aircraft, which had a "smaller cargo hold area."

In a statement to The Republic, Southwest said it apologized if it had not met customer care expectations.

"We have reviewed the situation and addressed it with the appropriate parties so we are able to provide a better experience for our Customers the next time they fly with Southwest," the statement read. "We have a long history of caring for our Customers and apologize any time we don’t meet those expectations."

Walker said they were given a $150 travel voucher in an attempt to compensate for the mistreatment.

"It's a voucher to a place that's already mistreated us. Cool," Walker said. "What is $150 going to get us? Nothing. So, when our stuff is falling down and we're watching our legs, our livelihood, our freedom fall on the ground like no one cares. ... I know about disabled rights. I know if I give you my device, you are obligated by law to bring that chair back to me the way I gave it to you."

According to the Air Carrier Access Act, if an airline damages someone's wheelchair, they are completely liable, regardless of the cost.

Shields said they have not filed an official complaint because she has done it many times in the past. The Republic obtained emails confirming that on at least five occasions, the airline sent vouchers to Shields and Walker for bad experiences she said were "I'm sorry vouchers."

Now, she is taking a different approach and speaking out.

"This is a systemic problem with the airline industry and how they treat people in wheelchairs," Shields said.

"It's unreasonable to expect us to live like this whenever we want to travel and it's also unreasonable to expect us to not travel, not do the things we love to do that we are able to do, because we are in wheelchairs."

Laws are aimed to protect people with disabilities. But is it enough?

The Americans with Disabilities Act was established in 1990 to prohibit discrimination based on disabilities.

The Air Carrier Access Act requires airlines to provide assistance to people with disabilities when traveling by air, including with loading and stowing of assistive devices. In response to incidents like what the Wheelchair Suns faced, the U.S. Department of Transportation is proposing a rule to strengthen implementation of the act.

According to the Department of Transportation, airlines "mishandle" on average about 1.5% of the mobility devices they transport.

In 2022, airlines carried 741,582 wheelchairs and scooters, and there were 11,389 incidents reported to the DOT. That's an increase from 2021, when carriers transported 553,969 mobility devices and 7,239 incidents were reported, according to USA TODAY.

In the new proposal unveiled by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in February, the definition of "mishandled" devices would specify that any mishandling of wheelchairs and assistive devices by airlines is a violation that is subject to penalty. If an airline does mishandle an assistive device, they would have to immediately notify the impacted passenger of their rights.

The passenger could then file a claim with the airline, receive a loaner wheelchair or scooter with certain customizations. If necessary, the passenger would have access to a complaints resolution official and to choose a preferred vendor for device repairs or replacement.

The proposal is undergoing public comment period through May 13. Many of those comments echoed a familiar sentiment:

"I am appalled by the rampant disregard that airline employees have displayed when handling passengers' wheelchairs."

"Airlines need to be held to account for this by training and retraining staff from baggage handlers to flight attendants."

"When wheelchairs are damaged or delayed, lives are upended due to missed connections, missed experiences, missed employment, and even injuries due to inadequate loaner wheelchairs."

Players watch wheelchairs be mishandled, fall off conveyor belt

After the team got off the plane, Walker said they started to notice their tires and rims were broken.

As they were sitting down at the carousel, a message came over the loudspeaker that said there was an inconvenience with the bags on the flight because of the wheelchairs and 30 bags were left in Denver because of it.

"Now we have every person that was on that flight that was already pissed off because we were late getting there," Walker said. "Now they're pissed off looking at us."

Walker said the airline only escalated the situation and when trusted to take care of the passengers' livelihoods, they did not.

When the team flew home to Phoenix, the airline said they would zip-tie and tag the wheels so the process would flow. The wheels were zip-tied, but during their layover in Chicago, the ground crew cut the zip ties, according to a social media post Walker and Shields posted to Instagram. Players then watched as their wheelchairs fell from the conveyor belt.

On the way back, the team needed an hour and a half to get off the plane so they could match the wheels to the chairs. Chairs and axles were broken. According to Walker, everyday wheelchairs cost between $5,000 and $8,000, and basketball wheelchairs between $8,000 and $12,000.

Walker said they were told it was an inconvenience for them to bring their chairs and that they would instead be put in a standard wheelchair, typically provided by airports and hospitals.

"For you to ask me to use somebody else's wheelchair that I don't know, that is honestly like asking you to use somebody else's underwear," Walker said. "We don't know if it's been clean, we don't know what's been happening in that chair, we don't know where it came from."

Players call for 'serious' policy changes

Speaking out about the experience has been part of the team members' way to share their story and their voices, they said.

"That's why we're doing what we're doing right now is because it needs to change," Shields said. "I don't need to be crying in the airport on the way to a national tournament because I've got all these angry strangers coming over and poking at me."

Shields said the airline needs serious policy changes regarding wheelchair storage. She said she would like to be able to remove the wheels herself, attach them to the chairs and make sure they are properly tagged.

She also suggested the airline pick a bigger plane to better accompany everyone and train their staff so they know the difference between an everyday wheelchair and a sports wheelchair.

Christopher Rodriguez, Ability360's CEO, got into disability advocacy work because of his older brother TJ — who has significant intellectual and developmental disabilities.

He said he has spent his career trying to assist in breaking down barriers for those with disabilities.

Ability360 is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit corporation. Through its comprehensive programs, Ability360 touches the lives of individuals with disabilities throughout Arizona and addresses the disability concerns of their family members, co-workers and employers, according to its website.

Ability360 has three adult wheelchair basketball teams that compete in Division II, Division III and the Women’s Division in the National Wheelchair Basketball Association.

"It's heartbreaking to hear about these stories and to understand how frequent they are, despite the fact that our paramount piece of legislation and law that put forth the rights to accessibility, the ADA, was passed over 25 years ago," Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez said the Southwest incident was disappointing and a horrible situation to put the athletes in.

Education needs to occur so both the workers at the airport and airline employees know the needs of individuals with disabilities and are aware of the challenges they may face, he said.

"If they fully appreciated or understood that a person's wheelchair is literally an extension of their body, perhaps they would have been more sensitive to the situation, but unfortunately, that did not seem to be the case," Rodriguez said.

After placing sixth in the tournament, the D2 Phoenix Suns season came to an end. While the men will not be playing again until next fall, travel will continue.

Shields said she is weary of traveling again but was hopeful that her next flight, which was scheduled for Wednesday, would not be as bad.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Ability360 Wheelchair Suns speaks out after Southwest flight