A University of Victoria master’s student with cerebral palsy is frustrated after her electric wheelchair was damaged three times during flights with United Airlines.
Nicola Walker first flew from Victoria to Las Vegas in late April. After getting her wheelchair back from the cargo hold, she noticed the back of her chair was snapped in half and the gear control was bent. The 27-year-old filed a claim, and United Airlines agreed to pay the $900 repair bill and gave her a $400 flight voucher.
Walker used that voucher on another trip to Las Vegas from June 11 to 14 — and her chair suffered even more damage.
When she arrived, she found the chair’s back and gearshift were once again broken. As she boarded the return flight to Victoria, Walker urged staff to be careful with the chair and to label it as fragile, citing previous problems.
So, when she got her chair back after landing, she couldn’t believe the state it was in. The footplate was ripped off, the electronics were fully exposed, the gear shift was dangling, the arms dented, the back was in pieces and the back wheels were barely functional, Walker said.
“I’m just about in tears at this point because how much worse can it get?” she said. “I can’t even process how broken it is.”
Walker said she has had problems getting around in the damaged chair, which is also uncomfortable.
The Victoria store that sold her the $13,000 chair, Motion Specialities, is going to look at the damage and let her know if it can be fixed, Walker said.
United Airlines is going to pay for the damage, but Walker has spent the past week haggling with the company over the phone, negotiating further compensation.
Walker said she knows accidents happen and that she takes a chance every time she travels with her wheelchair, but she’s disappointed with the lack of care the airline has demonstrated with something so essential to her life.
“I deserve some basic human respect,” she said. “They broke something I use every day to get around. … The whole week has been stressful to no end.”
Jennifer Dohm, a spokeswoman for United Airlines, said the company apologizes for the damage to the wheelchair.
“United’s baggage services team will co-ordinate and pay for any repairs that need to be made and will offer a replacement scooter in the meantime when these situations occur,” Dohm said in a statement.
“At Ms. Walker’s request, she continued to use her scooter and have the repairs made by her preferred vendor at home. We are paying for the necessary repairs and are providing a refund.”
Scooters and similar assistive devices travel in the cargo hold of the aircraft, where luggage is also stored, Dohm said.
“Occasionally, the devices can sustain damage if they shift in the cargo hold, as may happen during turbulence,” she said. “Our ramp agents do their best to position all luggage to limit any risk of damage, and we work quickly to make repairs and provide replacements when damage does happen.”
In 2008, United Airlines’ baggage handling made international headlines after musician Dave Carroll wrote a song that went viral about his $3,500 guitar which was damaged after being carelessly thrown onto a baggage cart.
The YouTube video has 15 million views, he’s written a book called United Breaks Guitars: The Power of One Voice in the Age of Social Media and he’s the subject of a Harvard Business School case study.
Walker, a social worker, doesn’t expect that sort of attention, but said her motivation in sharing her story is that she wants to raise the “understanding for people with disabilities.”
