#AIRPLANE COCKPIT CHAIR HOW TO#

He brought the owner's manual and staff pulled up YouTube videos on how to take off the batteries, Morris says.Īt his next destination, where he had a stopover before transferring to a larger jet, he says workers were confused why the chair had been taken apart and asked him to put the batteries back on himself. It took staff at American Airlines at the Gainesville airport forty-five minutes, he reports, to take the wheelchair apart. And also a time-consuming one that could lead to more reports of damage if the batteries don't get reassembled properly. It may be a face-saving solution since the wheelchair and the batteries would weigh the same in the cargo hold. Then he planned to travel on to Salt Lake City, where the city hired him to write a travel guide for wheelchair users. 21 to New Mexico, South Dakota and Las Vegas to write stories for his website. 'And in some cases, the only way to get to that destination might be that flight.' 'He needs to get there for job opportunities, or get there because of family emergency or get there because he's got a health appointment,' Page says. That travel is often essential, says Lee Page of the Paralyzed Veterans of America. But still, he says, at least tens of thousands do. Most of those people, he estimates, don't travel by jet. I'd estimate there are at least 250,000 to 300,000 people in the United States who use a complex power wheelchair that weighs over 300 pounds.' They're kind of heavy.'Ĭlayback says, 'A limit of only 300 pounds will compromise access for people with disabilities who rely on more complex power wheelchairs. 'The batteries weigh a lot, the motors weigh a lot. 'We're worried that if this really is a policy of not taking 300-pound wheelchairs, the vast majority of power wheelchair users are not going to be able to fly,' Shiotani says. He knew, for instance, that the door on the Canadair Regional Jet model he was flying has a cargo door 33 inches high, large enough to take his wheelchair. Morris lists those cargo door sizes on his website, Wheelchair Travel, so travelers can know in advance whether they need to modify a chair or use a different one before a flight.

The only thing that has changed is that the airline has made a decision to exclude me.'Īn airline can limit a wheelchair, based on size, if it doesn't fit through a plane's cargo doors. 'My wheelchair has been carried on this exact flight on this same aircraft at the same airline so many times. 'Each aircraft type has specific cargo floor weight and door dimension restrictions that are established by the aircraft manufacturer.' 'We do everything we can to safely accommodate mobility devices across our operation,' the spokesperson wrote.

Stacy Day, a spokesperson for American Airlines, told NPR that the new rule, which bars wheelchairs that weigh more than 300 pounds from the smaller regional jets, was a safety issue - to meet the cargo requirements of the aircraft.

In the most recent report from the Department of Transportation, for July, American mishandled 1.95% of the wheelchairs and scooters it carried, ranking 16th of 17 airlines and only ahead of Spirit Airlines, which mishandled 3.57%. American Airlines has often had one of the worst rankings on those lists of airlines that damage or lose wheelchairs.

Airplane cockpit chair