Flying back home from an event where he had advocated for accessible transportation, a man with cerebral palsy had to crawl down the aisle to his wheelchair after United Airlines failed to provide him with assistance.
“Humiliating” is how D’Arcee Neal described his experience upon landing at Reagan National Airport in Virginia on Tuesday night. He had just been in San Francisco speaking on the very challenge he was about to face: having basic access to transportation despite his disability.
“No one should have to do what I did,” Neal told NBC Washington. He waited alone on the vacated United Airlines plane for more than 30 minutes, according to WUSA, a CBS affiliate in Washington, DC. Realizing no one was coming and having to use the bathroom, Neal dragged himself halfway down the aisle to where a wheelchair would normally be waiting for him.
Except it wasn’t there, either.
“During the deplaning process, we made a mistake about the need for the chair and it was removed from the area,” United told the New York Daily News. “When we realized the error, we returned the chair to the gate, but it arrived too late to assist Mr. Neal.”
Neal told WUSA that a supervisor was suspended for the mistake, though that hasn’t been confirmed. Neal also said he received an apology and a $300 voucher, but he is speaking out to prevent similar events in the future.
“In 2014 there were over 27,500 complaints in reference to things like this, so it is not uncommon,” Dara Baldwin of the National Disability Rights Network, an organization that collects complaints of this sort, told NBC Washington. A staff lawyer, Amy Scherer, also shared her experiences of being left on a plane and, another time, having to be carried off by people accompanying her when airline staff took too long.
Per Department of Transportation rules applying to the Air Carrier Access Act, “Carriers shall not leave a passenger with a disability unattended in a ground wheelchair, boarding wheelchair, or other device, in which the passenger is not independently mobile, for more than 30 minutes.”
In June, Theresa Purcell, who also uses a wheelchair, was denied a ramp to board an American Airlines flight, forcing her to crawl and climb up onto the plane. She has filed a pending lawsuit seeking $75,000 in damages and millions of dollars in punitive fines.
Last year, Delta Airlines settled a case from 2012 for a confidential amount, in which a disabled man was also forced to crawl onto multiple planes, despite being promised accommodations.
The National Disability Rights Network says complaints are up 9 percent from last year.
RT News
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie “No New-Jersey – Cuba flights”
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has told the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to reject any flight routes between Newark and Cuba until a woman convicted of killing a state trooper is extradited to the U.S. – though one airline says it plans to push ahead anyway.
The Republican governor and presidential candidate sent a letter to the bistate agency Tuesday urging them to reject any regular flight routes between Newark Liberty International Airport and Cuba until Joanne Chesimard, also known as Assata Shakur, is returned to the U.S.
“It is unacceptable to me as Governor to have any flights between New Jersey and Cuba until and unless convicted cop-killer and escaped fugitive Joanne Chesimard is returned to New Jersey to face justice,” Christie wrote in the letter obtained by The Associated Press.
“I will not tolerate rewarding the Cuban government for continuing to harbor a fugitive,” he said.
Chesimard was convicted in 1977 in the death of Trooper Werner Foerster during a gunfight after being stopped on the New Jersey Turnpike in 1973; she was sentenced to life in prison but escaped and made her way to Cuba, where Fidel Castro granted her asylum.
United Airlines has expressed interest in launching flight service from Newark to Cuba, as the U.S. continues to loosen travel restrictions as part of an effort to normalize relations between the two nations.
United seemed undeterred by Christie’s objections. The airline said that while it would begin an “immediate review,” it still wants to push forward with plans to conduct flights to the communist nation.
United spokesman Rahsaan Johnson told The Associated Press that the airline intends to request the flights once an agreement is reached between the two nations under which airlines can apply to begin commercial air service. Asked about Christie’s letter, Johnson said, “We remain very interested in serving Cuba as soon as we are able to do so, and believe United’s service would benefit the airport and the region.”
“I understand Gov. Christie’s strongly expressed concerns and will commence an immediate review of the agency’s role in the proposed flight between Newark and Cuba,” he said. “I expect that review will be completed in a matter of days.”
Christie has been a vocal critic of improved relations between the U.S. and Cuba, especially the Obama administration’s decision to formally remove Cuba from a U.S. terrorism blacklist.
Meanwhile, United’s relationship with the Port Authority has come under scrutiny from federal investigators amid allegations that the airline resumed a money-losing flight from Newark to South Carolina, near where the Port Authority’s former chairman had a vacation home, at the same time United was pressing for concessions from the agency, including a new hangar at the Newark airport.
The flights were discontinued several days after Port Authority chairman David Samson stepped down in late March 2014.
FOX News
Virgin Atlantic flight hits blast fence at JFK
NEW YORK — A Virgin Atlantic flight from JFK to London crashed into a blast fence Saturday morning.
According to Port Authority, a plane was being pushed back from the gate when its wing struck the blast fence 8:30 a.m. Saturday.
A passenger on the plane, on his way home to London, told PIX11 “it looks like ground staff weren’t paying attention.”
The passenger said the “plane shuddered as it hit the wall, but we’re fine.”
Supermodel Bella Hadid was apparently on the flight also.
A Virgin Atlantic spokesperson said the crash was a cause of “a miscalculation by the tug.”
Port Authority says no passengers were injured in the crash. The passengers disembarked the plane and boarded a bus back to the terminal, according to Port Authority.
Pix 11