Raina Jones found that even recounting what happened to her wheelchair was emotional for her.
“They tried to lift it off and they dumped it all over the place,” she told USA TODAY. “It’s absolutely terrifying to watch that happen … They take away my life … It’s not just my legs, which is bad enough, I literally cannot sit up without my wheelchair.”
Jones was flying home to Newport News, Virginia, from Des Moines, Iowa, through O’Hare International Airport in Chicago where she said she saw the ground crew for her United Airlines flight drop her power wheelchair on the tarmac.
“There’s a lifting apparatus that they’re supposed to use, at least on the larger wheelchairs, and they did not want to wait for it,” she said. “I was banging on the window ‘stop, stop, stop.’ ”
The ground crew did not hear her warnings.
Jones said her wheelchair weighs 437 pounds and is worth around $37,000. After being dropped, she said, the headrest was bent, the fenders were gouged, and the chair itself started driving erratically.
“Whenever I’m driving, I don’t know what better way to say it, it will suddenly, so suddenly I almost tipped myself over, it will veer to the right,” she said. “I’ve lost my confidence in my equipment that I’ve had for three years because of (the airline) wanting to take shortcuts and I guess probably wanting to save money. I’ve had my independence stripped from me. There’s so much that’s gone when my chair is stripped from me.”
United Airlines said in a statement to USA TODAY that it is trying to support Jones while she awaits a full repair of her customized wheelchair.
“We know that special items like wheelchairs are essential for customers and we’re sorry this incident occurred,” the statement said. “We provided Ms. Jones a temporary wheelchair and remain in touch with her while her preferred technician fully repairs her original chair. We are covering the cost of those repairs and hope to have the opportunity to welcome Ms. Jones back.”
Jones, who is an incomplete quadriplegic and has a MELAS-subtype mitochondrial disorder, said that the loaner chair she has does not fit her properly, and that getting her wheelchair repaired is just a start to feeling whole again after this incident.
“It makes me very angry, it makes you feel like they feel like you’re less than human, that you’re just disposable,” she said. “You can’t give somebody back what you take away from them when they don’t have their equipment that is for them … That is my body, they have taken and abused and broken my body, and that’s not OK.”
Tell us your story:Mobility device lost or damaged by an airline? USA TODAY wants to hear about it.
How common is mobility equipment damage in air travel?
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 with the goal of bringing light to an all-too-common problem.
If your own mobility equipment was damaged or lost by an airline this year, please share your story with us using the form below:
Zach Wichter is a travel reporter for USA TODAY based in New York. You can reach him at zwichter@usatoday.com.
