by When Haeley Dyrdahl posted this video on TikTok before boarding her flight from Miami, she had no idea it would go viral by the time she landed in Seattle six hours later.
“I was on a long layover in Miami International waiting for our flight home when I saw those employees push luggage and two other wheelchairs down so aggressively that they flew off the end of the ramp,” says Dyrdahl. “I was shocked and angry and sad at the same time – I couldn’t believe I’d seen that twice in a row.”
Dyrdahl, who works for the Make-a-Wish Foundation, is sensitive to disability issues and knew it was no small issue. “When they pulled out the third wheelchair I got my camera,” she says. “At first, it was just to show my partner who was in the restroom, but we had to have a conversation about it being a much bigger issue than disrespecting people’s possessions. If they’re damaged, those are people’s legs and wheelchairs aren’t cheap or easy to repair.”
The video received more than 100,000 likes and attracted more than 5,000 comments.
“I don’t usually post on TikTok but I did before my flight took off and when I landed the video was everywhere. I was very surprised.”
Dyrdahl hopes the extra attention will improve the way mobility equipment is handled at airports.
“It’s a source of pride to see this,” says TV presenter and disability campaigner Sophie Morgan. “But I’m not surprised. This has been happening for as long as there have been airplanes and as long as there have been wheelchairs. What’s happening now, though, is that we’re seeing more and more of it because people are able to catch it on camera.”
Earlier this year, Morgan suffered £5,000 damage to her wheelchair during a British Airways flight from Los Angeles to Heathrow and posted an emotional message about her ordeal on Instagram. She says it was one of three cases where her equipment was damaged this year and she has suffered more than 20 years as a wheelchair user.
“What we feel in the wheelchair community is that we’re facing a crisis – that’s part of our body, that piece of equipment that’s being thrown down that roadblock. It’s as traumatic as that.”
Morgan, who presented BBC1’s The One Show and led Channel 4’s coverage of the Tokyo Paralympics, believes what she describes as a “catastrophic situation” is a systematic failure to train people properly.
“They need to learn that wheelchairs are not luggage. The training is not strong enough.” She says there is a lot of potential in the airline industry. “There are so many different parts to this puzzle,” she says. “The more time I spend on my Right to Fly campaign the more I see problems emerging and the collateral damage of those shackles is ours.”
The USA is currently the only country that requires wheelchair damage statistics to be reported. John Morris of Wheelchairtravel.org, a US disability website, is hopeful that other governments will soon follow suit.
“This data allows travelers with disabilities to compare flights based on metrics critical to their comfort and peace of mind,” he says.
Dyrdahl says that the response to her video feels like the internet has picked up together their pitchforks and is demanding better care for people with mobility equipment during air travel.
“In posting the video I’ve learned so much from wheelchair users about how serious this problem is,” she says. “I hope that the visibility of the video cannot be ignored and that airlines will make changes to protect all passengers equally.”
American Airlines said in a statement: “We recognize how important it is to support the independence of customers with disabilities by ensuring appropriate care for mobility devices during their journey with us. This video is very concerning and we are gathering more data so we can address it with our team. We will continue to work hard to improve the handling of assistive devices across our network.”
How to get airport assistance
Not everyone who needs assistance at an airport is a full-time wheelchair user. You may have had a recent operation, have a broken leg or ankle, or are unable to walk the distance due to age, injury or disability. Here’s how to get help if you don’t have your own wheelchair.
1. Add assistance to your booking once you have booked your flight. Most airlines allow you to do this online, but if not there will be a telephone helpline you can call. If you forget, you can usually ask for help at check-in.
2. Depending on where you are flying from, you may be able to get help from outside the airport – at the taxi drop-off zone, for example – or go to the help desk in the departure hall.
3. You will be escorted through security in an airport wheelchair (through a dedicated assistance lane which is also sometimes shared with families). Once you are airside, you will be left to wait in a special area in the departure lounge.
4. If you need to shop, and have people traveling with you who can help you with this, some airports will have a buzzer you can take with you that will call you when it’s time to take it to the gate.
5. You will be transferred to the gate in a wheelchair, or in a motorized vehicle. If you’ve said on your booking that you can’t use steps, you can bypass the gate entirely and take an ambulift, which is a motorized vehicle that lifts you to the airline door so you can have equal access to the aircraft.
6. If you are traveling with one companion, then you can usually stay with them. If you are traveling as part of a larger group, or with an able-bodied partner and children, they may have to make their own way to the gate or walk alongside the buggy.
7. You do not need to prove that you need the service. If you say you need it, no one is going to challenge you.
8. You can ask for a sunflower lanyard as a way to represent an invisible disability that you may need extra help with. With this you still have the option of being escorted through security, even if you don’t need a wheelchair.
