Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has vowed that his department will investigate after a recent viral video clip showed airline baggage handlers dropping a wheelchair down a slide and allowing it to crash to the ground.
The video showed one baggage handler at the top of a jet bridge placing a wheelchair onto a metal slide and allowing it to roll down to another baggage handler on the ground. As the chair gained momentum, the baggage handler on the ground stepped away from the ramp, allowing the chair to hit a stop at the bottom of the ramp. As the chair reached the bottom of the ramp, it flipped over and tumbled for several feet across the tarmac before the ground-level baggage handler picked it up and placed it on a baggage trolley alongside other wheelchairs.
The video was subsequently shared across social media, including by blogger Becca Peter, who shared the clip on the X social media platform (formerly known as Twitter)
“Wheelchair users have been trying for ages to raise awareness about their wheelchairs being broken so often when they fly and the devastating impact this has on them. @AmericanAir baggage handlers decided to give a demonstration of how much they enjoy breaking them,” Ms. Peter wrote.
The original TikTok video has garnered more than 3 million views on the platform, and Ms. Peter’s repost has since garnered more than 7 million additional views.
Mr. Buttigieg responded to Ms. Peter on X the following day, announcing that the Department of Transportation would be looking into the incident caught on camera.
American Airlines told NTD News that it is also looking into the incident captured in the viral video.
In his July video, Mr. Buttigieg said the Transportation Department is working toward a goal of allowing more wheelchair users to remain in their personal wheelchairs during airline travel and said the Federal Aviation Administration has initiated a three-year research process on the safety ramifications of allowing such wheelchair access in flight.
