For the first time in around 30 years, Rob Birk took to the skies. The damage to his wheelchair, though, makes it unlikely that he will board a plane again very soon.
Birk said, explaining that the leg lock of his manual wheelchair was fractured after his journey, “I couldn’t prove that the airline did it but everything was fine before I left.”
On March 23, while flying on Allegiant Airlines flight 378 from Fort Lauderdale, Florida to greater Cincinnati, Ohio, he decided it would be simpler to fix the chair himself rather than go through the formal complaint process.
Birk remarked, “It is a piece that does break periodically. “I go online and look it up; I know I can replace it myself and doing it myself will cost me less than having the wheelchair shop do it with the labour they would have charged.”
In addition to the damage to his wheelchair, incomplete quadriplegic Birk claimed that the entire flight was uncomfortable and obviously not designed with people who have mobility challenges in mind.
Birk stated, “First off, they put you in that aisle chair,” which was uncomfortable and challenging to sit in. “Due to the whole transfer from my chair into that aisle chair and then from the aisle chair into the seat itself,” the passenger said, “I probably won’t fly again for quite a while.”
