Wheelchair Bound Veteran Thrown Off Airplane

[ZenArcher]

Below are comments sent to US Airways following a return flight from ALS Advocacy Days in Washington, DC. I know the family below personally. This story infuriates me on several levels. Ken, described below, has ALS. He is unable to move or speak intelligibly. He is a veteran whom I had the pleasure along with two others of presenting a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns just two days earlier (http://www.prweb.com/releases/2009/05/prweb2408984.htm). Please help ensure that noone else receives treatment like that described below.

Upon boarding the pilot INSISTED that the battery be disconnected from Ken's power wheelchair for transport even though it is a gel battery and is not required. In fact even the mechanic told the pilot it was safer to leave the battery connected because it was very well insulated. He said no and they escorted me to the chair so I could instruct them in the operation of the chair and disconnecting the battery. Upon arrival in Orlando, I exited the plane first to help get the chair ready for my husband. While I was doing that, I could see in the window of the plane there were people gathered around our seats and told Phil (last name unknown) they COULD NOT move him without me there.

He assured me they would not do such a thing. Ken has ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) and has little to no use of his voluntary muscles, therefore he cannot speak clearly to make his needs known. I left our 16 year old daughter with him as she is the only other person with the ability to understand him. There is absolutely nothing wrong with my husband's brain and is very likely more intelligent than those that were gathered around him. Phil sent someone up to tell them NOT to move him. The pilot then instructed them to "get this man off of HIS plane". My husband has a feeding tube as well as a diaphragm pacer and due to the decreased muscle in his diaphragm has issues breathing...none of the airline personnel knew this because they could not understand Ken, even though he and Tabitha tried to tell them not to move him.

We were having trouble getting his wheelchair operational when someone on the radio said he was being moved up to the gate. I RAN to where they were wheeling him and hear him crying hysterically and see Tabitha crying because no one would stop so she could understand what he was saying. He had to sit in the aisle wheelchair, in pain for better than 30 minutes while we were getting his chair operational. I could not help work on the chair and tend to my panicking husband who was sliding out of the chair because once again he has little or no use of his muscles.

Ken is a brilliant man, who has not only served his country but also his community as a firefighter and was treated like a incompetent obstacle in your pilots quest to clear his plane so he could go home. We have never received such treatment not to mention the physical danger they placed my husband in.

We travel frequently as we know our time together is limited due to Ken's diagnosis and feel it is important to make those lasting memories with our children...this is a memory I wish we could erase. I look forward to hearing how this situation is taken care of. The thought of other physically challenged people receiving this treatment from your pilot's is sickening.

[Tayo]

Simply terrible. ;-(

[airborne18]

This is the same moronic airline that let the woman on with the pig, because she had a doctors note, and then was uncontrolable.