A traveler with cerebral palsy says his wheelchair was damaged by airline staff despite a safer alternative being available.Show Caption
A man's custom power wheelchair was broken when American Airlines staff forced it through a cargo door that was too small.The passenger and his partner spent nearly 12 hours at the airport arranging for temporary repairs.On the return trip, the airline acknowledged the chair would not fit and rerouted the couple on different aircraft.Jon Krieger’s wheelchair was broken on an American Airlines flight from Detroit to Phoenix, but it didn’t have to be – the same problem was prevented from happening on the return trip. “This could have been resolved by somebody looking at my chair and being like, ‘that’s not going to fit through the door,’” Krieger told USA TODAY. “They do have other solutions to be like, ‘oh, this doesn’t fit.’ Instead of jamming it in a hole.” Krieger, 41, was traveling to Phoenix for vacation with his partner Amie Frei, on March 5. He said when he got off the plane, he was told right away that his chair had been damaged. “We’re waiting at the jet bridge for my chair, and the ground crew that brought it to me said, ‘We had to pitch the chair backward a little bit,’” Krieger said. He wasn’t sure what that meant, but he soon found out.“The chair would not move. It was tilted way further back than it was supposed to be, and it would not move,” he said. “These chairs are designed that if you’re in the wrong position it’ll shut itself off” as a safety precaution to prevent users from putting themselves in a dangerous position. Krieger has cerebral palsy and relies on his custom power wheelchair to get around. After learning about the damage, he and Frei wound up spending nearly 12 hours at the Phoenix airport waiting for a temporary repair. Ultimately, a technician recommended by Krieger’s usual repair shop in Michigan was able to get the chair into usable condition but couldn’t make it fully functional. Still, it was enough for Krieger and Frei to leave the airport. “Four out of my six chair functions work, which is enough to enjoy the vacation, but it’s not working properly,” Kreiger said. It wasn’t until they flew home on March 14 that they fully realized what had happened. “We load the plane, same aircraft type that we got there on, so we’re like, ‘oh, we’ll get home; they just won’t break it this time,” Krieger said. “We’re boarded on the plane, and we’re delayed, and then we’re delayed again, and I look over at Amy, my partner, and say, ‘I bet I’m single-handedly delaying an airplane.’” But after about 45 minutes, he and Frei were asked to deplane. It turns out his chair didn’t fit through the cargo door. “Jon and I looked at the cargo door previously. The statistics, the data for a Boeing 737, you can find this on the internet. You can look at the dimensions, and I measured his chair,” Frei said. “The manager was like, ‘technically, by the numbers, it should fit, but because of the conveyor belt, the conveyor belt takes up a good six inches of the cargo door.” The previous baggage handler had bent the chair past its design limits to get it on their flight to Phoenix. In the end, Krieger and Frei had to be rerouted through Charlotte on different kinds of planes so his chair could be handled safely. “It was so unnecessary if they had treated this accessibility equipment the way they should have in the first place and asked the right questions about the dimensions,” Frei said.“We know how important mobility devices are for our customers, and we regret Mr. Krieger's experience. Our team has been in touch with him directly to apologize and ensure his wheelchair was repaired as soon as possible,” Gianna Urgo, an American Airlines spokesperson, said in a statement. “We have also provided a goodwill gesture , given the inconvenience this situation has caused.” American Airlines gave Krieger and Frei $400 vouchers, according to Krieger. For Kreiger, the lack of proactive assistance was the most frustrating part. “Better training and being able to tell people with disabilities, hey, this does not fit. We have to reroute you because of XYZ,” he said. “I’m OK with that.” Frei said she hopes airlines can treat Kreiger and other disabled passengers with more dignity in the future. “We need to be treating people’s medical equipment the way we would treat a person,” she said. “This is part of Jon’s livelihood, this is how he interacts with the world.” How common is airline wheelchair damage? U.S. airlines actually showed significant improvement in 2025 compared with 2024 in terms of wheelchair damage rates, but there’s still work to be done. According to the Department of Transportation, the 10 largest U.S. airlines and their subsidiaries carried 907,259 wheelchairs and other mobility devices in 2025, and the DOT received 9,910 reports of mishandling – a rate of 1.09%. For comparison, carriers mishandled 1.26% of the mobility devices they transported in 2024. Zach Wichter is a travel reporter and writes the Cruising Altitude column for USA TODAY. He is based in New York and you can reach him at zwichter@usatoday.com.
