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 perform live in Europe.
What the 46-year-old quadriplegic from Kitchener, Ont., wasn’t looking forward to was getting out of his custom-made electric wheelchair and into an airplane seat, as required by federal law.
His concerns proved valid when airline staff who helped move Glasbergen to his seat dropped him onto the aisle, setting off a more than three-minute struggle to lift the 200-pound man off the floor and onto his feet.
“There wasn’t enough room to put me in the seat and they dropped me,” said Glasbergen, a former travel agent who is paralyzed from the chest down due to injuries sustained in a 1992 car accident.
“Suddenly, my body hit the floor with a loud thud.”
A video posted by Glasbergen on YouTube captures the moments just after his fall. It shows him pinned between a seat and a wheelchair as two men struggle to lift him over an armrest and into a seat.
WATCH | Glasbergen’s Struggle to Sit:
Paralyzed passenger dropped by airline staff while being transferred from wheelchair to seat
James Glasbergen, who is paralyzed from the chest down, was dropped by airline staff helping him move 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 stepped in to help and the group successfully seated him.
“It went beyond disappointment and shock. Now I’m just mad,” Glasbergen said, adding that it’s not the first time he’s been dropped.
“There is absolutely no dignity for disabled people who need help moving.”
Glasbergen is urging 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 hassle, potential injury and damage of wheelchairs packed with luggage, people who rely on wheelchairs for mobility, advocates and the U.S. Secretary of Transportation say it’s time to make air travel more accessible so people , living with disabilities, to have a fairer flight.
“If they can figure out how to fly a helicopter to Mars, they can figure out how to get people in wheelchairs to sit safely in their wheelchairs,” Glasbergen said.
“It’s not something that’s going to take weeks or days, because obviously there may have to be some reconfiguration of the cabin … I just want to see the progress.”
Transfer accidents, damaged wheelchairs
In an emailed statement to CBC Toronto, Air Transat apologized and said it was in contact with Glasbergen to discuss how to improve future travel experiences.
“On-site transfer services are provided by a third-party contractor and we are actively investigating this incident to avoid a recurrence,” spokeswoman Marie-Christine Pouliot wrote.
Toronto resident Melissa Graham, who lives with mobility impairments, says sitting in an airplane seat is hard on her body.
But the negative experiences that passengers like Graham and Glasbergen face when they fly extend beyond the requirement to sit in a seat.
Graham says her wheelchair was damaged 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 a plane seat, but also because her wheelchair has broken down multiple times in the past. (Submitted by Erin Panger)
According to Graham, when she arrived in Winnipeg, she noticed that one of the fenders that covered the wheels of her electric wheelchair had broken, while the backrest, which she relies on for support and balance, had been damaged on the return flight.
WestJet confirmed that Graham had an “open claim” for damages, saying his service provider would contact her to resolve it.
“It’s incredibly disappointing. It makes flying in general very stressful,” Graham said.
“I’ve flown six times since last December and I haven’t had a single flight where I’ve felt completely comfortable.”
The Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA), the federal air transport 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, not those where a passenger has dealt directly with an airline.
While no figures are available for Canada, the largest U.S. airlines lost or damaged at least 15,425 wheelchairs or scooters between the end of 2018 and June 2021, the Washington Post reported last year, citing data by the US Department of Transportation.
Graham says the fender of her 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 standards
For safety reasons, federal regulations currently require passengers who use wheelchairs to be seated in airplane seats, and most mobility devices must be stowed in the cargo hold along with passengers’ luggage.
The regulations require airlines to ensure that appropriately trained staff perform wheelchair transfers and to reimburse passengers for the repair or replacement of mobility devices that have been damaged during carriage.
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 US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) air safety standards. – which Canada follows.
“If wheelchairs and a wheelchair restraint system for in-cab use receive certification, we will consider whether a regulatory amendment is appropriate,” the CTA said in a statement.
US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, pictured here in May, says his department is working on a rule that would allow people in wheelchairs to stay in their wheelchairs while flying. (Susan Walsh/Associated Press)
Progress in the USA
Movement on the matter may soon come from the southern side of the border.
Just last week, US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said his department was working on a rule “in the coming months and years” that would allow passengers to remain in their wheelchairs while flying.
“We know it’s not going to happen overnight, but it’s a goal we have to work towards,” Buttigieg said at an event Tuesday.
Last September, a panel of experts convened by the US Transportation Research Board (TRB) completed a preliminary study of systems that use seat-belt-like straps or another mechanism to secure a wheelchair to the plane floor.
It found that most aircraft in use have a main boarding door wide enough for most personal wheelchairs and that the interiors of the most common models – the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 – would require only “modest” modifications to create an area where A wheelchair could be provided.
“The commission did not identify any issues,” the study said, that “call into question the technical feasibility of the in-cabin wheelchair restraint system.”
The CTA says it is aware of the study and is monitoring the issue, but more research is needed.
Michelle Erwin, founder and president of the Texas-based nonprofit All Wheels Up, said her organization is working with the airline industry and the U.S. government to prove that commercially available wheelchairs and anchorage systems can meet the same safety standards such as seats on the plane.
Erwin said All Wheels Up had conducted initial crash tests on various wheelchair restraint systems made by Q’Straint, a leading manufacturer of wheelchair restraint systems for motor vehicles and trains, all of which passed.
“What we learned from our crash tests is that a wheelchair space is technically feasible,” Erwin said.
As a result of the TRB study, Erwin said the airline industry is developing wheelchair space concepts, some of which include a removable seat in the front row of the plane that can be removed and put back in depending on whether a passenger on a flight requiring accommodation in wheelchair.
For wheelchair users like Glasbergen, turning concepts into reality can’t come soon enough.
“It’s not enough to say this is already a safety issue,” he said.
“Things have to change – it’s 2022.”
Michelle Ervin, founder and president of the Texas-based nonprofit All Wheels Up, says her organization has crash tested wheelchairs and tether systems to prove they meet U.S. air safety standards. (CBC)
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