Colleen Flanagan felt like she’d been attacked on her JetBlue flight when she found out her wheelchair was broken.
“If I was in front of a JetBlue executive I would take the opportunity to say that their company assaulted me,” she said. “I really would express to them that this was violent.”
Flanagan, 43, has osteogenesis imperfecta and identifies as a little person. She works as an outreach and engagement specialist for the Boston mayor’s disability commission, and traveled to Washington, D.C., from Boston on April 17.
She said that when she arrived at Washington National Airport, a JetBlue employee informed her her wheelchair had been damaged in transit.
“They said it fell out of the cargo door; it looks like it,” she said. “The joystick is completely demolished, the switches are not even there. The armrest is completely limp, I can’t figure out why. The metal frame for your backrest and other seating mechanisms is completely dented in. It doesn’t even power on.”
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Now, Flanagan has to wait for repairs or possibly a replacement and hasn’t gotten a clear timeline on when either could happen.
“This has to be a complete loss, I would assume,” she said.
Flanagan has had to make significant changes to her daily routine while she’s waiting.
JetBlue, like many other airlines, contracts with Global Repair Group for mobility device incidents, and Flanagan said the loaner chair they supplied her with does not fit her properly. Wheelchairs are usually custom fit for their users.
“I can break bones for little or no apparent cause,” Flanagan said. “I’m actually decreasing my community involvement. I don’t want to but I have to because if I break my leg, that’s going to be a lot more pain and a lot more suffering.”
She also typically relies on public transit to get around, but doesn’t feel safe doing so in the loaner chair because she’s not positioned properly when sitting in it. Instead, Flanagan said, when she does leave home now she’s much more reliant on rideshares.
JetBlue told USA TODAY that Flanagan can be compensated for those rideshares as “reasonable expenses for ground transportation related to the customer not being able to use her own wheelchair,” but Flanagan said she hasn’t had any luck getting the airline to respond to her reimbursement requests.
JetBlue said they’re working with Flanagan to make sure the repairs are done as quickly as possible.
“We sincerely apologize to our customer for the damage sustained to their wheelchair. While we know it is not a replacement, we have provided a loaner power wheelchair to the customer while we work on expediting necessary repairs, which will be fully covered by JetBlue,” an airline spokesperson said. “We are in the process of providing a refund for their airfare, and we’ve provided a credit for future JetBlue travel.”
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Flanagan said she wishes the process were more streamlined.
“What I would like to have been possible is if JetBlue could get the specs, all the details of my customized power wheelchair and then just go to the manufacturers and just replace it,” she said. “They have the power to make it so that if a wheelchair got damaged there’s an adequate process to replace it. They also have the power to get innovative and make it so that people in wheelchairs don’t have to separate from their wheelchairs to travel by air.”
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:
Read Amanda Parkman’s experience with Southwest Airlines on her flight to New Orleans
Read Shayn Pulley’s experience with American Airlines on their flight to Philadelphia
Read Clifford Gowing’s experience with American Airlines on his flight to Miami
Read Heather Bennett’s experience with Delta Air Lines on her flight to Boston
