A viral video capturing baggage handlers at Miami International Airport tossing a wheelchair down to the tarmac has sparked a promise from Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg that his department will look into the incident.
The clip, originally shared on TikTok and then uploaded to other platforms, shows an American Airlines baggage handler sending the wheelchair careening down a baggage chute. It hurtles down the track, crashes into a gate meant to stop suitcases, flips over it, and crashes to the ground.
“This is completely unacceptable. We will be investigating,” Buttigieg stated in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. “This is precisely why we are taking steps to safeguard passengers using wheelchairs. Everyone deserves to travel safely and with dignity.”
Buttigieg was reacting to a post that garnered 7 million views and nearly 50,000 likes, showing an airline employee pushing a wheelchair down a ramp, causing it to topple to the ground.
The video emerges as wheelchair users and accessibility advocates have expressed concerns that their equipment is mishandled and broken during travel.
“Wheelchair users have long been trying to raise awareness about their wheelchairs being frequently damaged when they fly, and the devastating impact this has on them,” Becca Peter expressed in a post on X. “@AmericanAir baggage handlers decided to give a demonstration of how much they enjoy breaking them.”
Buttigieg’s post links to a page that outlines the Transportation Department’s disability policies. The Disability Policy Priorities were revealed and adopted in July 2022 during a celebration of the anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the statement said.
The department has established four focus areas to be more inclusive of people with disabilities, including “enabling safe and accessible air travel; enabling multimodal accessibility of public transportation facilities, vehicles, and rights-of-way; enabling access to good-paying jobs and business opportunities for people with disabilities and enabling accessibility of electric vehicles and automated vehicles.”
Data from the Government Accountability Office reveal that the number of disability-related complaints made to the Department of Transportation increased from 2020 to 2021. In November 2022 alone, additional data showed airlines mishandled 941 wheelchairs.
The Air Carrier Access Act, passed in 1986, prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in air travel and requires airlines to accommodate passengers’ needs.
In February, Senators Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) and Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) introduced a bill aimed at increasing transparency around disability-related complaints for air travel passengers.
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