When James Glasbergen boarded an Air Transat flight from Toronto to London on June 30, he was excited to begin his journey to see the Rolling Stones play live in Europe.
What the 46-year-old quadriplegic from Kitchener, Ont., didn’t expect was to step out of his custom electric wheelchair and into an airplane seat, as required by federal law.
His concerns proved justified after airline staff helping move Glasbergen to his seat dropped him in the aisle, prompting a more than three-minute struggle to lift the 200-plus-pound man off the floor and stand it up
“There wasn’t enough room for them to put me in the seat, and they dropped me,” said Glasbergen, a former travel agent who is paralyzed from the chest down from injuries sustained in a 1992 car accident. .
“Suddenly, my body hit the ground with a loud thud.”
A video Glasbergen posted to YouTube captured the moments just after he fell. It shows him sandwiched between the seat and a wheelchair as two men struggle to lift him over an armrest and into a seat.
LOOK | Glasbergen’s struggle to sit down:
Paralyzed passenger dropped by airline staff while being moved from wheelchair to seat
James Glasbergen, who is paralyzed from the chest down, was dropped by airline staff helping him transfer from a wheelchair to an airplane seat on an Air Transat flight in Toronto on June 30.
After two failed attempts, a flight attendant and another passenger step in to help him and the group successfully seats him.
“It’s gone beyond frustration and shock. Now, I’m just angry,” Glasbergen said, adding that it’s not the first time he’s been dumped.
“There is absolutely no dignity for people with disabilities who need help to transfer.”
Glasbergen is calling on airlines and regulators to figure out a way to allow wheelchair users to remain seated in their personal mobility devices when flying, as they can on buses and trains.
Between the inconvenience, potential injury and damage of wheelchairs stored next to luggage, people who rely on wheelchairs for mobility, advocates and the US transportation secretary argue that it’s time of making air travel more accessible so that people with disabilities have a more equitable flying experience.
“If they can figure out how to fly a helicopter to Mars, they can figure out how to get wheelchair users into their chairs safely,” Glasbergen said.
“It’s not something that’s going to take weeks or days because obviously there would have to be a reconfiguration of the cabin. … I just want to see the progress.”
Transfer mishaps, damaged wheelchairs
In an emailed statement to CBC Toronto, Air Transat apologized and said it is in contact with Glasbergen to discuss how to improve future travel experiences.
“On-site transfer services are managed by an outside contractor and we are actively investigating this incident to prevent a recurrence,” spokeswoman Marie-Christine Pouliot wrote.
Toronto resident Melissa Graham, who lives with a mobility disability, says sitting in an airplane seat is hard on her body.
But the negative experiences passengers like Graham and Glasbergen face when they fly extend beyond just having to sit in a seat.
Graham says his wheelchair broke down twice on the same WestJet trip from Toronto to Winnipeg over Canada Day weekend.
Toronto resident Melissa Graham says flying is a stressful experience for her because she has to leave the comfort of her wheelchair and sit in an airplane seat, but also because her wheelchair has damaged several times in the past. (Submitted by Erin Panjer)
According to Graham, when he arrived in Winnipeg he noticed that one of the wedges covering the wheels of his electric wheelchair had broken, while the backrest on which he relies for support and balance was damaged in the flight from comeback
WestJet confirmed that Graham has an “open claim” for damages, saying her service provider will be contacting her to resolve it.
“It’s incredibly frustrating. It makes flying in general very stressful,” Graham said.
“I’ve flown six times since last December, and I haven’t had one flight where I’ve been completely comfortable.”
The Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA), the federal air travel regulator, says it has received 247 wheelchair-related air accessibility complaints over the past five years. Eighteen related to wheelchair damage, while 214 related to wheelchair assistance.
But this data only includes complaints to the regulator and not those where a passenger dealt directly with an airline.
While specific data for Canada is not available, the largest US airlines lost or damaged at least 15,425 wheelchairs or scooters between late 2018 and June 2021, the Washington Post reported last year. citing data from the US Department of Transportation.
Graham says the fender on his wheelchair broke on a WestJet flight from Toronto to Winnipeg earlier this summer, while the backrest was damaged on the return flight. (Submitted by Melissa Graham)
Air safety rules
For safety reasons, federal regulations currently require passengers using wheelchairs to be seated in airplane seats, and most mobility devices must be stowed in the cargo hold along with the passengers’ luggage.
The regulations require airlines to ensure that wheelchair transfers are performed by properly trained personnel and reimburse passengers for the cost of repairing or replacing mobility devices that are damaged in transit.
The CTA says no aircraft or mobility aid design that would allow people to remain in their wheelchairs has been fully tested and certified to meet Federal Aviation Administration aviation safety standards (FAA) of the US, which is followed by Canada.
“Should wheelchairs and a wheelchair restraint system for use in the cab receive certification, we would consider whether a regulatory change is appropriate,” CTA said in a statement.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, pictured here in May, says his department is working on a rule that would allow wheelchair users to remain in a wheelchair while flying. (Susan Walsh/Associated Press)
Progress in the USA
Movement on the issue could soon come from south of the border.
Last week, US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said his department is working on a rule “in the coming months and years” that would allow passengers to remain in their wheelchairs while flying.
“We know this won’t happen overnight, but it’s a goal we have to work towards,” Buttigieg said at an event on Tuesday.
Last September, a panel of experts convened by the US Transportation Research Board (TRB) concluded a preliminary study on systems that use seat belt-like straps or other mechanism to secure a wheelchair to the floor of a plane
It found that most airliners in use have a main boarding door wide enough for most personal wheelchairs, and that the interior of the most common models, the Boeing 737 and the Airbus A320, only would require “modest” modifications to create an area where a wheelchair. could be insured.
“The committee did not identify any issues,” the study said, that “call into question the technical feasibility of an in-cab wheelchair attachment system.”
The CTA says it is aware of the study and is monitoring the issue, but that more research is needed.
Michele Erwin, founder and president of Texas-based nonprofit All Wheels Up, said her organization has been working with the airline industry and the US government to demonstrate that wheelchairs and Fastening systems on the current market can meet the same safety standards. like airline seats.
Erwin said All Wheels Up has conducted initial crash testing of several wheelchair restraint systems made by Q’Straint, a leading manufacturer of wheelchair safety systems for motor vehicles and trains, all which happened
“What we learned from our crash tests is that a place for a wheelchair is technically feasible,” Erwin said.
In the wake of the TRB study, Erwin said the airline industry has been developing wheelchair seating concepts, some of which include a replaceable seat in the front row of an airplane that can be removed and put back together. place depending on whether a passenger on the flight who requires accommodation in a wheelchair.
For wheelchair users like Glasbergen, turning concepts into reality can’t come soon enough.
“It’s no longer good enough to say this is a safety issue,” he said.
“Things have to change: it’s 2022.”
Michele Erwin, founder and president of the Texas-based nonprofit All Wheels Up, says her organization has conducted crash tests of wheelchairs and attachment systems with the goal of showing that they can meet US aviation safety standards. (CBC)