Disability Rights UK calls for airlines to be held accountable for damage to mobility devices
Disability Rights UK has launched a new campaign to demand that the UK Government grants the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) the power to fine airlines and other actors if they fail to look after disabled passengers and their equipment.
The campaign is calling for airlines and other actors to be held accountable for damage to wheelchairs or essential mobility devices, or when they leave disabled passengers on flights for a prolonged period once the flight has landed or when they fail to provide adequate assistance despite prior knowledge of disabled passengers’ needs.
The CAA’s current regime of oversight for accessible air travel is limited and ineffective in holding airlines and/or other actors to account when such issues arise. Charters and codes of conduct would not work.
The ‘Rights On Flights’ campaign has been launched with support from disabled TV presenter Sophie Morgan and MP Marion Fellows.
Sophie, who is a wheelchair user and frequently travels internationally for her TV work, conceived the campaign with Marion Fellows MP and Disability Rights UK after recently having her bespoke wheelchair and electric-powered front-wheel BATEC system damaged beyond use on a journey between Los Angeles and London.
Sophie said: “Enough is enough. This is a short-term solution to an ongoing problem and the beginning of a long journey towards a whole system overhaul of the entire airline industry.
“Disabled people need to be able to have the confidence to trust air travel. And this campaign is the first step for that. We are not asking for special treatment. We are asking for our experiences to match those of non-disabled people.
“How many more people need to get hurt, lose vital mobility equipment or even die before we see change?”
Marion Fellows MP has written to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, and all Parliamentarians. The wider public is being invited to write to their MP in support via the Disability Rights UK Rights On Flights campaign page.
Whether it’s assistance not being properly provided, being left alone on aircraft long after landing, or having essential mobility equipment damaged or broken, each disabled traveller has their own story to tell.
Disability Rights UK is encouraging disabled people to join the charity by writing to local MPs to ask them to support the Rights On Flights campaign.
Dr Barend ter Haar discusses how air travel and airports are not readily used for ease of use by those in wheelchairs in a two-part series of Let’s Get it Clear articles for THIIS Magazine. Part One discusses what’s the best that a wheelchair occupant can hope for when they embark on air travel. Part Two takes a closer look at the US-produced Air Travel Configuration Card, which features a standard aimed at increasing the likelihood that a chair will be delivered intact.
