Delta Makes Woman With Muscular Dystrophy Crawl Off Plane
On July 20th, Julianna's (delayed) Delta flight landed in Atlanta at 7:30pm, with a connecting flight scheduled for 8:05pm. Julianna, who has muscular dystrophy, missed the connecting flight because nobody came with a wheelchair until 8:05—the same time the connecting flight took off. To make matters worse, the plane crew told Julianna she might make the flight anyway if she stopped waiting for help and got off the plane right now, so she crawled down the stairs on her own. When the wheelchair came she was "wheeled into a back room and advised" that her plane had taken off. But that was just the first half of her ordeal, and the next eight hours only got worse.
The employees in this room were debating who would get me to the ticket gate to be re-ticketed because it was no one's job and the appropriate personnel were not responding to their calls. After that was resolved I was given a new boarding pass for a flight expected to leave at 12:55 AM. Then this person advised me she cannot get me from a D Gate to Gate A9. She again called for the appropriate personnel who never showed. We waited by an elevator for someone she convinced to bring me over to Gate A even though it was not his job. I had to beg him to stop at a bathroom entrance and to wait for me and then he finally delivered me to Gate A9.
I was given a meal voucher for my INCONVENIENCE but could not purchase any food because again there was no one to bring me to an eating establishment, never mind wait on the long line for me to make a food purchase.
At 11:15 I advised the gate attendant I was dehydrated and cramping because I could not purchase any water. This is the only nice employee that treated me with dignity. The flight I was transferred to was supposed to leave at 10:22 PM but was delayed until 1:30 AM. This gate attendant went and brought me water off of the plane.
This gate attendant also made sure she finally found some one at 11:15 PM to push me to obtain food and another bathroom break. I arrived in West Palm Beach at 3:15 AM with no ride and had to again crawl into the shuttle service to get home.
I understand plane delays and waiting at airports, but is this how you treat your handicapped passengers???
The text above is from a letter Julianna has sent to Richard Anderson, Delta's CEO, who we hope will do more than send her another food voucher—like take real steps to make sure handicapped passengers are treated with a minimum of respect when they're traveling.
(Thanks to Chris)
(Photo: Andrei Dimofte)
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Comments:
Ummm, this may actually violate some laws here. If you are handicapped, you have very specific rights that some person saying "it is not my job" will not alleviate.
She'll get a voucher.
People want to pay the absolute lowest price to travel.
The airline doesn't make money.
The airline won't pay it's people.
The employees punish the customer for flying.
I would love to hear the explanation for this one.
Some kind of bullshit "liability" issues no doubt. Here was an opportunity (or several opportunities) for someone to step up and shine (or at least do the right thing), but apparently only one person could be bothered to be CIVIL to another human being.
I can't imagine even if there is some explanation why it was not offered at the time.
I don't know that any other airline would have done better in any case.
Juliana, you have my sympathy and I hope you are treated better in the future.
Wow, that is so sick. Delta is out of their minds. What kind of horrible company treats people with a disability that way? DELTA.
I don't think this is a breakdown of Delta's processes so much as a breakdown of common decency and respect for one another as human beings.
Sadly, it will be much easier to fix Delta.
This sound so appalling it's hard to believe someone could be treated this horridly, both with the first flight and upon landing in West Palm Beach.
This woman crawled down the plane's stairs? So how would a wheelchair have gotten her out of the plane if there was no skybridge to the plane? The flight attendants and other passengers just watched?
When the woman arrived in West Palm Beach, she crawled to the shuttle? Shuttles are on main roadways outside the aiport. This woman was on the floor crawling through an airport and all the passengers, police, security, airline personel, shuttle driver, etc. - no one intervened?
What a sad comment on humanity - or lack thereof
@LorneReams: But they did the job eventually. If they'd left her stranded completely, then any laws -- if applicable -- would come into play. I'm not saying the whole situation wasn't screwed up, only that the law -- if there is one -- wouldn't apply to specific individuals, and therefore "it's not my job" is a fair defense until a management level person instructs the butt-holes otherwise.
Sue them. Sue everybody.
Well its good to see the airlines branching away from just autistic children. I can't wait to see which disability is hit next.
any guesses?
It is nice to know that they treat everyone including people with disabilities with equally crappy customer service.
I'm utterly aghast and disgusted. My sister also suffers from MS and I, for one, was furious to read about your treatment. Delta Airlines will no longer be seeing any more of my travel money.
Such callousness is unbelievable. Most average citizens would help someone in distress; you'd think that the EMPLOYEES would certainly want to help - or at the very least do it because it's their job! I hope that Mr. Anderson punishes the employees involved and makes them take a refresher course in customer service.
This is truly, truly appalling.
Good lord. What a disgrace.
Not their job? I worked in a hospital-patient escort is the easiest thing in the world. And did these clowns really have anything better to do? Christ on a cracker
Dont worry.. I'm sure they'll be "taking it very seriously as soon as it was brought to their attention".
@SkokieGuy: As someone who has a muscular atrophy disease myself, I would definitely have stopped and helped her off of the plane at the very least if the employees were refusing to do so (I can walk fine with the assistance of prosthetic devices). Pathetic that so many people were such assholes.
That is disgusting. And every flight I've been on lately at least waits for a few minutes until they're sure everyone is there if passengers are coming for a connection..
With such a lack of compassion in our society no wonder we are in the socio-economic mess. Everyone seems to be focused on themselves. Yikes.
Its not the responsibility of the airlines to take care of someone with a handicap when they are not on their plane. (I would think anyway) She received everything she asked for, although obviously not in a timely manner.
Do airlines prevent ppl from bringing crutches or wheelchairs on planes? Seems like there wouldnt have been a problem if she was able to bring her own wheelchair. Id like to know how come she didnt have a wheelchair with her.
WTF? I organized my team's MS bike tour and raised 30k exactly to prevent this nonsense from happening.
Rather than pay the lady off I'd rather see the employees at hand have to volunteer for a fundraiser or event to learn more.
This is slightly misleading. Delta EMPLOYEES made her crawl off the plane--I can't believe I'm even writing this--not Delta Airlines, the company. I'm sure the company has rules and regs in place for something like this, but blame the flight attendants and the staff at Hartsfield--they dropped the ball on this one.
However, Delta the company needs to answer for their employees, so indirectly they are to blame...but this is totally not corporate policy.
[www.dotcr.ost.dot.gov] has all the links to the US Dept of Transportations requirements for meeting ADA accommodations. A couple of the links are bad, but the most important ones (in my unhumble opinion) are the link "Air Carrier Access Act Provisions", a summary of the act that says things like:
"Airlines are required to provide assistance with boarding, deplaning and making connections. "
"Carriers must designate "complaints resolution officials" to respond to complaints from passengers and must also respond to written complaints. A DOT enforcement mechanism is also available."
She needs to do more than just mail the president of the airline. She needs to file a formal complaint with the DOT and maybe even the FAA, and perhaps consider contacting an ADA-specializing lawyer. (The first link on that webpage, "Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability in Air Travel", is a huge Microsoft Word file with a form to use to file a DOT complaint at the end.)
I once got stranded in an airport by an airline whose crew said, "Gee, there's nobody here to push you in a wheelchair, too bad." I only found out a year later that this is a federal violation and a complaint would have gotten them (at the least) a nice fat fine.
One thing I've also heard is -- never, ever, get off the airplane itself until a wheelchair is present for your transport, even if it means missing a flight. Once you are off the plane, they can just leave you behind in a waiting area. As long as you are on the plane, they have to help you. If they don't like it, or they mis-treat you, immediately demand to speak to the airline's Complaints Resolution Officer. They are *required* to have a CRO available 24x7, even if it's someone on the end of a phone.
@SigmundTheSeaMonster: Don't sue me though~ I have no money :P And the whole no affiliation whatsoever with Delta thing..
@LorneReams:
The Americans With Disabilities Act has no criminal penalties, only civil. When ADA as it relates to airlines has come up in other posts, comments were made that the ADA did not apply to airplanes, only the ground facilities. She can sue them for failing to provide "reasonable accommodations" but there are no criminal charges that can be filed, as it relates to the ADA.
Delta (and it's executives) should be taken out and shot for creating the atmosphere where this could be allowed to happen. Especially it it's main hub, where just about EVERYONE wears a Delta uniform.
Delta is worse that US Air... I think the airline needs to be and should be held accountable for the behavior of their employees. This situation should be elevated to higher authorities AND the person with the disability NEEDS ensure that the airline is capable and fully aware of ANY special needs required by it's passengers. Others may disagree, but both share some responsibility, but the airline, in my opinion acted was very unprofessional and inhumane.
@Aladdyn:
I wouldn't be surprise that she had to check her wheelchair and it was on the flight she had missed.
Do airlines prevent ppl from bringing crutches or wheelchairs on planes?
@Aladdyn: Actually, they do. Someone correct me if I'm wrong here but doesn't the airline have to use their own, smaller wheelchairs for disabled people? You can't board a plane in a normal one.
It astounds me that people in a customer oriented industry would treat somebody (anybody!) this way. Between highschool and university I worked for a road construction company (a decidedly not customer oriented service). One day we were paving in front of a nursing home. A woman came out and wanted to cross the fresh asphalt in her slippers and robe (asphalt comes out of a paver at right around 400 F, and cools over about six hours). The project superintendant was standing nearby, and informed her that is would blister her feet through her slippers. He then made my jaw drop and offered to carry her across the road, which she accecpted.
Eat that airlines, road construction companies are giving better customer service than you.
let's accidentally "shatter" some shins and make those delta people crawl off a plane themselves.
I hope this woman sues the hell out of Delta. It seems like it's the only way they'll listen nowadays.
@Aladdyn: Did you even read the blurb? They didn't help her even when she WAS on their plane, and their incompetence was the reason she missed her connection and had to wait around for so long. And most airlines do provide assistance through the terminal, etc for people in wheelchairs and the like.
And yes, airlines do prevent people from bringing their own wheelchairs on planes. You can check them as luggage, but they usually only let you have one of their folding chairs on board the aircraft. So she was entirely dependent on them for mobility.
They are probably so understaffed & overworked that the employees didnt have time to do anything outside their normal duties. Its the airline's fault not its employees (except the employees that were officially designated to help the handicapped.... they seemed to be missing completely).
Imagine you are the employee.... being stuck between a rock (asshole management who would probably write you up for ignoring your regular duties by helping this handicapped person) and a hard place (customers who demand service).
I have been in these situations before.
I can't believe that workers in the airline industry are allowed to treat abled or disabled people like this.
@starrion:
People want to pay the absolute lowest price to travel.
The airline doesn't make money.
The airline won't pay it's people.
The employees punish the customer for flying.
This decribes the cycle, but the business is still good for these companies, maybe their profits are not as high, but they still profit... if they were really losing that much they would be out of business or being saved by the government (Taxpayer Money) already.
Shouldn't she be traveling with help? I mean it seems to me that she expects the airline to carry a heavy burden.
@Rectilinear Propagation: Yes, they usually make you use one of theirs on board the plane (I presume for space reasons, understandably). I don't use a wheelchair, but a quick Google told me this answer. They put personal wheelchairs in the cargo hold, instead.
It's the feel-like-crap story of the day!
Unfortunately, airlines are also making cuts in the quality of people they hire- I am guessing these people just got hired from some fast food place.
All joking aside- the best way to not make money is to treat customers like shit. It takes mere seconds to do the job right. And I am not talking about getting paid- if you want to get paid more, do your damn job!
@taney71: The airline agreed via their policy to assist her. Then they didn't provide reasonable assistance as promised. The fact is, they didn't follow their own policy. It's irrelevant whether she should have someone else to help her. She made her arrangements based on the airline's stated policy of providing assistance.
I hate to play devil's advocate here, but why is everyone buying her story hook line and sinker without question? I find it hard to belive that someone dragged themselves from the gate to the curb without anyone causing a stir.
She may have been treated like crap, she may not have and might be looking for a golden ticket. I think more facts are needed before making judgements against either side.
Wow, when did Delta become FEMA?
@KeilwerthLA: I highly doubt that - I don't believe most people who have MD are looking for anything other than reasonably humane treatment. It's a terrible disease, and it's very much possible that she couldn't walk at all without a chair (though who knows exactly what she meant by "dragging herself" - that could range from having to drag her feet painfully along the ground to crawling prone on the floor). And anyway, all we have to go on is her statement. We have no reason to doubt it based on this.
I thought people with disabilities didn't like to be referred to as "disabled" or "handicapped."
BTW, what she had to go through is awful.
It's Delta - is there anything more to be said?
No, I can believe it.
Two years ago, after kneesurgery, my leg was in a cast, and I was on crutches.
I had requested wheelchair to be planeside and help getting to the other gates.
No chair, no help.
I did the crawl, crutch, hobble thing too.
The other people? Watched.
Just like the folks in the NYC ER who watched the woman die.
that is completely inhumane. julianna deserved FAR MORE dignity than she received. there is NO excuse for treatment like that.
the appropriate personnel were not responding to their calls
And they should be fired. Immediately.
@karmaghost: Better than "crippled." I thought disabled was the most PC, although I don't know of any other term except "differently abled"
I'm speechless. This is horrible and not surprising.