Man with cerebral palsy crawls off United Airlines plane when wheelchair doesn

D’Arcee Neal found himself caught in a humiliating situation, one that highlights the issues that still exist in terms of air travel for physically challenged individuals. His normal wheelchair was at the back of the plane; hence he needed an aisle chair to transport him to it. After crawling to the terminal, he got into a wheelchair that was still waiting with flight attendants. However, when his flight arrived, he was informed that an aisle chair had arrived for him at the gate, but was then taken away again.

“I was trying to get them to understand that this is why I don’t want to wait another 15 to 20 minutes”, he said.

Neal, who has Cerebral Palsy, was returning from San Francisco where he was a guest speaker on disability-accessible transportation.

After waiting for more than half an hour and repeatedly being told to wait, the wheelchair bound man decided that he could not sit any longer.

“I expected them to ask to assist me, but they just stared”, he said.

But, due to a mix up at the gate, Neal waited about 30 minutes for the chair to arrive. The spokesman adds, once the mistake was realized, the chair was returned, but it was too late.

Neal had just flown United into Reagan National Airport in Washington, DC from San Francisco.

However, a flight attendant later reported the incident to her bosses and a representative of the airline contacted D’Arcee the next day to apologise. Neal said that the whole experience was quite humiliating and that no one should have to go through such a thing.

United Airlines apologized for the error. But after the airline failed to provide him with an aisle chair or employee assistance, he ended up having to crawl to the door, he said.

Neal said that one of the flight attendants had recorded him and the on-duty manager was suspended.

While passengers disembarked, the airline mistakenly said it was no longer needed, so it was removed from the area. He isn’t certain he will join them, but told NBC2 that it was worth consideration, if only to make the industry “take a hard look” at their current policies.