people have no idea like. how devestating this is. so many wheelchairs are custom made and repairing them is hellish, if they’re in a state to be repaired. most wheelchair users do not have the financial means to replace them, and SSI asset limits mean that if they’re on disability it’s a ridiculous set of hoops to even crowdfund past 2k to repair or replace.
airlines need to be held accountable for this in a major way. they see fucking over disabled people’s lives as more profitable than fixing how they handle wheelchairs. and i mean like, actually ruining lives, taking away comfort and freedom that they worked so, so hard to get. people take their lives because of this.
^ yes to all of the above.
But also like, how do you lose a wheelchair? I could understand them getting on the wrong flight, but it’s not like they’re going to fall behind the conveyor belt. If they’re labeled, shouldn’t they be able to get them back? I’m so frustrated!
Again how do you lose them? Didn't they use them to get into the flight?
For the umpteenth time (does anyone ever check the notes?) airlines lose luggage all the time. But for those of you who clearly need more detail, here are actual things that have happened with wheelchairs.
1. The airline tells the wheelchair user at the check-in desk they have to transfer to an airport chair and then never takes their chair to the plane.
2. It gets left on the jetway.
3. It gets left on the runway.
4. It gets put on the wrong plane/sent to the wrong airport.
5. It gets put on the right plane but instead of returning it to the door of the plane, the airline sends it down to the baggage carousel and someone else takes it.
6. It gets put on the right plane and returned to the door of the plane and then while the disabled person is waiting for the whole plane to unload the airline just gives their chair to a random person/lets a random person take it instead of checking to see if the person taking it is the one who owns it.
On that last point, when you say "gives it to a random person", do you mean they give it to a different disabled person, or just really let any old person grab it like they would one of the cheap folding chairs the airport offers to help people get across large terminals?
Both.
[ID: Reblog by @pagerunner “Never forgetting the time Julie, her mom, and I few to NC. And when you use a chair, you get on first and get off last. (On this freakishly narrow chair they strap you on while they put the actual chair - with your name on it - in the cargo, like a stroller.) And when we finally get off the plane, Julie's chair isn't there. ANOTHER PASSENGER SAID IT WAS HIS AND THEY JUST. GAVE IT TO HIM? IT HAD JULIE WRITTEN ON THE TAG. And then there were stewards trying to track down the wheelchair thief, and Julie's stuck on this tiny, foot-wide chair until they finally show up the guy is angry she's "taking it away from him". Worst travel day.”]
[ID: Reblog by @liraelclayr “Frontier Airlines GAVE MY WHEELCHAIR AWAY to somebody. They told him it was an airport wheeIchair, even though there was a very large neon orange tag on it with my name on it, and it looked nothing like the wheelchairs in the airport. I was incredibly lucky to have gotten to the guy in time for him before he got away with it. He was a minute from getting away in a taxi. I will never, ever use Frontier again, and I tell my friends not to use them either.”]
[ID: Comment by @anywaybulletjournal “People who could or would steal something like that … 😰”]
[ID: Comment by @miranda_alfaro_ “I traveled from Richmond back to DFW my hometown this weekend and American let someone steal my wheelchair and transport it to another terminal. No one stopped anyone and thank god they found it but I was stranded for 2 hours I was so angry.”]
Just a reminder that this happens every day to wheelchairs users.
This happened to my great aunt the last time she traveled before she died.
- She is forced to "check" her chair and it has her name on the back rest on both sides after a previous incident and her phone number.
- She has limited mobility but she could walk for brief periods of time that she usually saved for specific times and has a walker and cane. She happened to have her cane with her at the time.
- They sit her on the plane and proceed to TAKE her cane from her even tho it was collapsible and she put it in her lap.
- Thy wouldn't give her her cane to go to the bathroom and no one would help her to go.
- They forced her to piss herself because of this and she still had another 3 hours before she could get off.
- No one would help her, employees or passengers
- They wouldn't give her the cane back and wouldn't bring her an airport chair for another hour so she could get off the plane
- They lied straight to her daughters face about where she was.
- They finally gave her a chair to get off the plane but still refused her her cane
- They gave her chair to someone else
- That person eventually called her while she was waiting for her daughter to be escorted to her so they could go home and actually gave her chair back, the airport broke the other person's chair.
- THEY STILL REFUSED TO GIVE HER CANE BACK.
- TSA was called for a suspicious person which was her crying, piss covered, and alone by the plane exit. They yelled at her until someone else finally got involved and helped her.
- When she finally got her cane back, it was broken in 4 spots, where the pieces click together and the handle. You had to actually try to break it and it was purposeful.
- Someone tore the embroidered cloth that had her name and number off the back but left the one that actually touches the person. Meaning someone did it intentionally.
Fuck the airport. Fuck airlines and their employees. They treat disabled people horribly and intentionally sabotage their mobility devices.
Engracia Figueroa died as a direct result of injuries sustained when United Airlines destroyed her wheelchair.