No Care in the Air? Airline traveler who is quadriplegic shares struggle, demands change

Is airline travel really accessible for all people? How about those with disabilities? One Cape Coral homeowner who is quadriplegic says no, and wants to know why, so he reached out to WINK News for help.

If you’re disabled and rely on a power wheelchair, you have travel options: wheelchair-accessible buses, vans, taxis, trolleys, and trains.

You can’t fly commercial—not in your chair. People who are disabled tell us the services carriers provide illustrate a critical need for more care in the air.

For 45-year-old James Glasbergen, his Cape Coral vacation home is paradise.

“It’s easy to smile when you come to a place like Cape Coral and the sun shines 300 days a year, and you’ve got beautiful palm trees everywhere,” Glasbergen said.

He built the home in 2013 to meet his needs for someone who is quadriplegic. He’s paralyzed from the chest down from a car crash back when he was a teenager, but his disability hasn’t stopped him from seeing the world.

“I’ve been traveling for 27 years,” Glasbergen said. “And I do it because I love it and do it because I hate winter more than anything else.”

Airline travel appears to be a close second.

“I’ll be honest, like I’m getting to that point where I don’t want to do it anymore,” adds Glasbergen.

He said it takes skill and muscle to get him in and out of his customized electric wheelchair.

“It’s always a two-person carry,” Glasbergen explained. “One person carries the top half the other person carries the legs.”

Despite calling ahead to the airlines, he said he doesn’t always get that help.

“I’m used to people coming to transfer me and being completely unprepared. It’s frustrating,” states Glasbergen.

This video is from his United Airlines flight into Southwest Florida International Airport in February, recorded by his personal care assistant. It begins with a worker walking out.

Another asks the caregiver to stop recording.

For more than 10 minutes, the remaining crew appears to struggle.

They manage to move Glasbergen from the airline seat…

… into the onboard wheelchair. Then it’s time to get him off the plane, out of the onboard wheelchair, and into his electric wheelchair.

An airline employee on the Jetway asks the personal caregiver for advice.

Glasbergen explains, his personal assistant didn’t jump in to help because, “he doesn’t do physical lifting. That’s not his job.”

Michele Erwin, founder and president of All Wheels Up, a non-profit dedicated to getting wheelchair spots on planes, weighs in.

“Why should James’s assistant, end up out on a back injury and then not able to assist James seven days a week when he needs him?”

Erwin said the video illustrates the workers’ lack of training and equipment to effectively do the job. “To get onto an airplane, you really aren’t treated like a person, you’re really treated like just, you know, luggage.”

In addition to the constant fear of being injured, Glasbergen feels the way he’s handled is degrading and demoralizing, “There’s no dignity whatsoever… and flailing all over the place. And people are watching the whole thing. And it’s like that every single time.”

We sent Glasbergen’s video to United Airlines.

The airline said, in part, “Our top priority is to provide a safe and comfortable journey for all our customers, especially those who require additional assistance or the use of a wheelchair.”

In a follow-up call with United Airlines spokesperson Charles Hobart, he told WINK News the wheelchair agents who work for them at Southwest Florida International Airport are hired by a third-party company called, G2 Secure Staff, LLC., and did not speak to their level of training and expertise. As for his reaction to Glasbergen’s video:

Hobart told us United Airlines “didn’t offer this passenger service in a convenient, efficient, and comfortable manner.”

G2 Secure Staff offers aviation support services to airlines across the country, including wheelchair agents. The company claims these workers undergo “rigorous training.” It also boasts a 99.99% customer satisfaction rate.

We found five federal court cases in the last several years, where unsatisfied passengers filed suit against G2 Secure Staff and its partner commercial airlines. All of the passengers claimed they didn’t get the disability services they required to travel safely and were hurt as a result. One is pending and the others settled out of court.

We sent G2 Secure Staff the video. After speaking to their lawyers, they responded via email, saying in part, “The agents assisting Mr. Glasbergen were careful and methodical in placing the passenger’s safety and well-being above speed during the transfer.”

The company would not talk about its training, claiming the “materials are proprietary and confidential.”

“This is a human rights issue,” says Glasbergen. “It’s discriminatory that people with disabilities can’t sit in their own wheelchairs on planes. Enough is enough, like things need to change.”

The U.S. Department of Transportation says United Airlines is responsible for the services provided by G2 Secure Staff. They can’t pass the buck. We also sent the video to Southwest Florida International Airport. They say the airlines provide the customer support services—not the airport—and have no comment on this story.

Stay tuned as we continue this investigation. In the meantime, do you have something you’d like Celine McArthur to investigate? Email celine.mcarthur@winknews.com.

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Read the “No Care in the Air?” series:

• Part 2: Disabled airline traveler experience exposes lack of uniform training standards
• Part 3: DOT to host virtual public hearing to discuss wheelchair traveler troubles