Lydia Arina Barron captured video of the moment her wheelchair got damaged as it was loaded on a Southwest Airlines flight.
“I started making a habit of sitting on the side of the plane where you can see them loading stuff,” she told USA TODAY. “I was looking out the window filming it and I saw them pick up the chair and flip it upside down and put it on the conveyor belt. I saw that happen and I just knew there was going to be damage somewhere on the bracket there or on the seat.” Low Oxygen Levels
Barron was traveling from Dallas to Denver on Sept. 18. When she arrived at her destination, she said the backrest’s folding bracket was broken and missing a screw.
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“Even little damages like that can cause big issues,” Barron said.
She has a connective tissue disorder that affects her movement, and although she doesn’t need her wheelchair 100% of the time, not being able to rely on it still took a toll on her activities and her pocketbook.
“I’m an ambulatory user, so I was able to go about my day-to-day without it as much, but obviously, I wasn’t able to do errands and stuff as I would otherwise,” she said. “I had to rely a lot on delivery shopping, and that’s a lot of money out of my own pocket to pay for that.”
On top of that, she suffered from back pain because she couldn’t sit in the correct position when she was using her chair.
Southwest Airlines’ standing statement on wheelchair damage to USA TODAY says it works with customers to resolve such issues.
“Our teams have been in touch with the customer to assist them with their individual situation,” the statement says.
Barron acknowledged that Southwest was helpful in getting her wheelchair repaired, but doing so took almost two months.
“Southwest as an airline is one of the best. I always fly Southwest, and they did reimburse beyond fixing the damage,” she said. “It’s still sad that even the best of the best have these issues.”
Barron said she hopes disabled passengers can become better informed of their rights – an effort that the Department of Transportation is supporting with a disabled passengers bill of rights. She also said she hopes airlines can improve their training for employees who handle mobility devices.
“The easiest way, and the fastest way for them to do change right now would be a retraining of their loading people and really emphasize how delicate these things are when they aren’t treated how they were designed,” she said.
Read more:USA TODAY tracked stories of mobility device damage on airlines throughout 2023.
According to the Department of Transportation, airlines "mishandle" on average about 1.5% of the mobility equipment they transport. In 2022, that translated to 11,389 incidents reported by U.S. airlines, up from 7,239 in 2021.
This year, USA TODAY wants to highlight what those figures mean for travelers with disabilities. We're looking to track these incidents throughout 2023 to bring light to an all-too-common problem.
If your mobility equipment was damaged or lost by an airline this year, please share your story with us using the form below:
Medical Device Labeling Zach Wichter is a travel reporter for USA TODAY based in New York. You can reach him at zwichter@usatoday.com