- An American Airlines passenger says her wheelchair was damaged after two flights in April.
- Deanna Vaillancourt-Thompson said the airline didn't respond but a third party handled the issue.
A woman who traveled on an American Airlines flight in April said the airline didn't directly acknowledge her complaints after her wheelchair was returned damaged, USA Today reported on Tuesday.
Deanna Vaillancourt-Thompson told the publication that she uses a manual wheelchair due to ongoing complications from a car accident. She said the wheelchair was returned to her with completely flat tires and a broken brake handle after a flight from San Francisco to Charlotte on April 19, and that there was more damage on the return flight home.
"The guy who brought my wheelchair up said, 'Oops, sorry,'" she told USA Today's Zach Wichter, speaking of the initial damage to her wheelchair after the first flight.
Representatives for American Airlines didn't respond to requests for comment, but a spokesperson for the airline told USA Today in a statement that it is "committed to supporting the independence of our customers who travel with wheelchairs and assistive devices" and that a member of the team got in touch with Vaillancourt-Thompson to apologize and "fully repair the device."
Vaillancourt-Thompson told USA Today she was only able to use the chair as a walker after the first flight. She was able to reinflate the tires after checking into her hotel, however, the brake handle remained broken, she said.
The passenger added that in her experience it's common for her wheelchair's tires to become low on air after a flight, however, it's not usually the case that the chair can't be used.
She told the outlet that she had been traveling for the Psychiatric Service Dog Partners convention, which took place between April 21 and April 24, according to the website.
When Vaillancourt-Thompson took her return flight home after the convention, her wheelchair was returned with the other brake handle completely gone, she told the outlet.
Vaillancourt-Thompson says it took weeks to get replacement parts for her wheelchair
Global Repair Group, which works with American Airlines for mobility device repair, sent Vaillancourt-Thompson replacement parts six weeks after she returned home, she told USA Today. She added that she carried out the repairs herself. Global Repair Group did not respond to requests for comment.
Although an airline rep told USA Today that they'd apologized to Vaillancourt-Thompson, according to the passenger, she hasn't heard from the airline directly since issuing an official complaint.
"I haven't heard anything from American. I just heard 'sorry about that' from the manager at baggage claim, and I've never heard from them," Vaillancourt-Thompson said.
"I tried filing complaints with them and to get a hold of somebody there, and they don't reply," she added.
Vaillancourt-Thompson's experience isn't uncommon
Vaillancourt-Thompson told USA Today she's friends with Veronica Morris, an American Airlines passenger who made news earlier this summer after saying her wheelchair was returned with the seat missing and a wheel "sheared off" after a flight from Charlotte to Philadelphia on June 16, USA Today reported in July.
In a statement obtained by USA Today at the time, American Airlines said it apologized for the incident. Morris said she was provided with a new wheelchair by Global Repair Group and that the airline provided her with points for future flights.
Vaillancourt-Thompson told USA Today that wheelchair damage hasn't just been an issue with American Airlines, in her experience.
"Whenever I fly, no matter what airline it is, I always get flat tires, missing brake handles," she told the outlet.
John Morris, founder of the advocacy group Wheelchairtravel.org, told Travel Weekly in April that airlines are more likely to damage wheelchairs than baggage because the crews responsible for transporting them may not be handling them properly.
"You can train someone to lift a wheelchair properly," Morris told the outlet. "But I think the real solution is securing equipment so that staff don't have to lift a 400-pound vehicle. Eliminating the opportunity for failure is the way that I would go about solving it."
He added that chairs often aren't secured in cargo holds, while some chairs don't fit through the cargo door in an upright position.
Vaillancourt-Thompson could not be reached for comment.