Bethany Piehl said the damage to her wheelchair on a recent Southwest Airlines flight could have easily been avoided. It was her first time flying with a wheelchair since she started using one regularly, and she is frustrated that, even after preparing as best she could, her device is irreparably damaged.
Piehl was flying home to Texas after a work trip in Washington, D.C., and saw her wheelchair get damaged during a layover in New Orleans.
“I watched them throw, for lack of a better word, my chair onto the conveyor belt,” she told USA TODAY.
When she arrived in San Antonio, Piehl said her chair was visibly dented and scratched up, and once she got into it, she realized the front wheels weren’t level, and it wobbled when she moved.
Piehl uses her wheelchair as a result of several conditions that affect her nervous system. She said as those conditions have progressed, the wheelchair is now a necessity to prevent injuries.
“I travel for work a lot, multiple times a year. How can I travel safely with you next time and know my legs won’t be broken next time because my chair is my legs?” she said.
Southwest Airlines’ standing statement on wheelchair damage to USA TODAY says it’s working with Piehl to resolve the issue.
“Our teams have been in touch with the customer to assist them with their individual situation,” the statement said.
However, Piehl feels the airline hasn’t gone far enough, and that a simple policy change could have prevented this damage from happening.
“I would like to see every passenger that has a manual wheelchair have the right to have their chair onboard with them through either the closet if it fits or through seat strapping, without having it be an extra cost,” she said. “I don’t think anyone should be left wondering if they’ll be able to get off the same way they got on.”
Piehl said she spoke to the airline about seat strapping before her trip. The procedure would have allowed her to purchase an extra seat and strap her wheelchair frame to it using the standard seatbelt – similar to how musicians often wind up traveling with large instruments like cellos or tubas. But, she said, Southwest told her seat strapping was against its policy.
In an audio recording Piehl provided to USA TODAY, a Southwest customer service employee confirms that seat strapping is permitted for instruments on the airline but not for mobility devices.
“To allow seat strapping, it’d be 100% protection against this kind of damage happening for a manual chair,” she said.
A technician for Global Repair Group, which contracts with Southwest Airlines on mobility device repair, told Piehl her chair would need to be replaced. She’s not sure how long that will take.
“I think there’s this misconception that it’s just a chair, it’s replaceable,” she said. “Every single measurement on my chair is specific to my body.”
Piehl said she hopes her experience can help move the needle for other travelers with disabilities.
“There is no way to replace the hours that have gone into trying to fix this,” she said. “What I’d like to see is policy change for further protection in the future.”
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 [email protected]
