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 when the airline staff who helped carry Glasbergen to his seat threw him onto the aisle, beginning a 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 I was thrown,” said Glasbergen, a former travel agent who is paralyzed from the chest down due to injuries sustained during a 1992 car accident. “Suddenly, my body hit the floor with a loud thud.” A video posted by Glasbergen on YouTube captured the moments immediately after his fall. It shows him wedged between the seat and a wheelchair, while two men struggle to lift him over an armrest and into a seat. WATCHES | 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, fell from airline staff helping him 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 and the team successfully renders him. “It’s gotten over the disappointment and the shock. Now, I’m just angry,” Glasbergen said, adding that it’s not the first time he’s been abandoned. “There is absolutely no dignity for disabled people who need help getting around.” Glasbergen is calling on airlines and regulators to find a way to allow wheelchair users to remain seated in their personal mobility devices when flying, just as they can on buses and trains. Between the inconvenience, potential injuries and damage to wheelchairs stacked 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 travel so that people with disabilities have a fairer 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 wheelchairs safely,” Glasbergen said. “It’s not something that’s going to take weeks or days because obviously there might have to be some restructuring of the cabin … I just want to see progress.”

Transportation accidents, 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 transportation services are handled by a third-party contractor and we are actively investigating this incident to avoid any 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 that passengers like Graham and Glasbergen face when they fly extend beyond being required 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 an airplane seat, but also because her wheelchair has been damaged several times in past. (Submitted by Erin Panjer) According to Graham, she noticed when she arrived in Winnipeg that one of the mud flaps covering the wheels of her electric wheelchair was broken, and the back she relies on for support and balance was damaged on the return flight. WestJet confirmed Graham has an “open claim” for compensation, saying its service provider will contact it 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 a single flight where I could feel completely comfortable.” The Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA), the federal air travel regulator, says it has received 247 wheelchair-related aviation accessibility complaints over the past five years. Eighteen involved damage to wheelchairs, while 214 involved wheelchair assistance. But that data only includes complaints to the regulator, not those when a passenger deals directly with an airline. While no data is available for Canada, major U.S. airlines lost or damaged at least 15,425 wheelchairs or scooters from late 2018 to June 2021, the Washington Post reported last year, citing data from the U.S. Department of Transportation. . Graham says her wheelchair mud flap broke on a WestJet flight from Toronto to Winnipeg earlier this summer, and the seat back was damaged on the return flight. (Submitted by Melissa Graham)

Aviation security standards

For safety reasons, federal regulations currently require passengers using wheelchairs to sit in airplane seats, and most mobility devices must be stowed in the hold with travelers’ luggage. The regulations require airlines to ensure that properly trained staff perform wheelchair travel and to reimburse passengers for the cost of repairing or replacing mobility devices damaged in transit. The CTA says no plans for planes or mobility aids that would allow people to stay in their wheelchairs have been fully tested and certified to meet US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) aviation safety standards — which Canada follows. “In the event that wheelchairs and a wheelchair restraint system for in-cabin use are certified, 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 wheelchair users to remain in their wheelchairs while flying. (Susan Walsh/Associated Press)

Progress in the US

Movement on the matter could soon come from south of the border. Just last week, US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said his department was working on a rule “over the coming months and years” that would allow passengers to stay 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) completed a preliminary study on systems that use straps similar to a seat belt or other mechanism to secure a wheelchair to the floor of an airplane. It found that most aircraft 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 Airbus A320 – would require only “modest” modifications to create an area where a wheelchair could be provided. “The committee did not identify any issues,” the study said, “that call into question the technical feasibility of an in-cabin wheelchair locking 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 is working with the airline industry and the U.S. government to demonstrate that current market wheelchairs and tether systems can meet the same safety standards as airline seats. Erwin said All Wheels Up conducted initial crash tests of various wheelchair restraints made by Q’Straint, a leading manufacturer of wheelchair restraints for motor vehicles and trains, all of which passed. “What we learned from crash testing is that a wheelchair spot is technically feasible,” Ervin said. In the wake of the TRB study, Erwin said the airline industry has developed ideas for wheelchair spots, some of which include a replaceable seat in the front row of an airplane that can be removed and repositioned depending on whether a passenger on the flight requires wheelchair accommodation. For wheelchair users like Glasbergen, turning ideas into reality can’t come soon enough. “It’s not good enough to say this is a security issue anymore,” he said. “Things have to change – it’s 2022.” Michele Erwin, founder and president of Texas-based nonprofit All Wheels Up, says her organization has crash-tested wheelchairs and tether systems to prove they can meet U.S. aviation safety standards. (CBC)