Reasons & Remarks – Gremlins

For many travelers with disabilities, damaged mobility equipment has become an all-too-common part of the flying experience

The term “gremlins” has been in the aviation lexicon since World War II.

An imaginary creature hell-bent on sabotaging aircraft, gremlins were blamed by flight crews for otherwise inexplicable incidents in the air and on the ground. This fictional scapegoat was created as a practical means to pass the buck or deflect blame without pointing the finger at a fellow crew member.

Decades later, gremlins have become a convenient fall guy for mishaps at airports, and despite the best efforts of disability advocacy groups, I’m afraid hordes of these mischievous creatures continue to emerge whenever a wheelchair is loaded into the belly of an airplane.

Recently, I found myself a victim of one of these so-called gremlins. My plane had landed at San Diego International Airport, and 30 minutes later, my fellow passengers were already on their way to baggage claim. However, my wheelchair was nowhere in sight, so I couldn’t get off the plane. A flight attendant went looking for it, and as time passed, I began to worry that it was still at Gate C9, Terminal 4, at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.

As the cleaning crew boarded the plane, I received a text from my wife asking me why I wasn’t waiting for her and the kids at the curb outside baggage claim. After all, that’s been our routine since July 2023 when I began working in Phoenix as the editor-in-chief for PN and SPORTS ’N SPOKES.

My wife was losing her patience, and with two hungry kids strapped in their car seats behind her, the situation was becoming dire. Her subsequent texts began to escalate to a rapid boil, and eventually she called me. 

As I was trying to explain the situation to my wife, the flight attendant returned with one of my wheels, followed by her supervisor carrying the rest of my wheelchair. Alas, my wheelchair was broken, which meant I was going to remain in Seat 1D for a while longer.

I said, “What the hell happened to my wheelchair?!” There was no denying that someone screwed up, but the person’s identity would remain a mystery because the supervisor simply responded, “Gremlins!”

Without wasting any more time, my frustrated wife demanded I hand my phone to the supervisor and took control of the situation. Via FaceTime, my wife diagnosed the problem and told the supervisor how to make my wheelchair functional again, albeit temporarily, and I was able to get off the plane.

I could not, in good conscience, keep my wife and screaming, hungry kids waiting any longer, so I chose to forgo the broken wheelchair paperwork in the customer complaint resolution office, or whatever they call it, and joined my cranky family for a miserable ride home.

Fortunately, I keep a backup wheelchair at home for these kinds of situations, and the following day, my friend, Steve, who built my wheelchair, fixed the damage caused by the gremlins.

Just three weeks later, I returned to the San Diego airport after working in Phoenix for a few days, and, once again, those damn gremlins broke my wheelchair! It was like déjà vu all over again, except the damage was far worse than the previous incident. 

Gremlins or not, this time I was going to hold the airlines responsible. After submitting all the paperwork to the airline representatives and receiving a voucher for $100, they put me on the phone with a company in Chicago called Global Repair Group. The company’s representative said they would be responsible for managing the process of repairing my damaged wheelchair and that they worked with a vendor in San Diego who could fix it. I was skeptical. After all, if my wheelchair didn’t get repaired properly, who would I blame and what recourse would I have? Are gremlins covered by insurance?

The next morning I got a call from Steve. He said, “I heard the airlines busted your wheelchair again.” I asked him how he knew that I needed his help, and he responded, “Whenever the airlines break a wheelchair built by Hands On Concepts, I get a call from Global Repair Group.”

He went on to say that Global Repair Group sends him 12 to 18 wheelchairs a year, which shouldn’t be surprising because the Department of Transportation reports that the 10 largest U.S. airlines mishandle approximately 31 wheelchairs and scooters each day. Who knew gremlins could create so much havoc?

Nevertheless, after Steve fixed my wheelchair, I returned to my routine of working in Phoenix. While waiting at Gate C7 to board my Southwest Airlines flight back to San Diego, a woman dressed in coveralls, steel-toed boots and knee pads approached me. After removing her heavy gloves and headgear, she said, “Do you have any special requests regarding your wheelchair before I stow it in the belly of the aircraft?” My response was, “Yeah, don’t break it.”

She grinned and acknowledged that there have been problems with Southwest Airlines mishandling wheelchairs, but that the company had recently created new policies and procedures to mitigate those issues. 

She told me many nightmarish stories about her experiences loading wheelchairs on Southwest flights, and it didn’t take long before I began to suspect that I was face-to-face with the gremlin responsible for breaking my wheelchair.

I imagine every airport has its gang of mysterious and malicious gremlins whose singular purpose is to bring about as many inexplicable mishaps as possible. Yet, no matter how hard we try to avert the gremlins’ efforts, those of us who use wheelchairs seem to be their favorite targets.

I will never surrender to the gremlins, but I have learned that as long as these tenacious creatures exist, I will always need to plan for the worst and hope for the best. Meanwhile, Steve just built me another wheelchair that I keep in my office in Phoenix. I consider this “gremlin insurance.”

All kidding aside, it’s easy for us to become angry at airline employees for damaging our wheelchairs, but the Department of Transportation’s Air Travel Consumer Report found that airlines operating in the U.S. handle on average 1,486 wheelchairs and scooters every day. That’s a lot of opportunities for gremlins, or whoever, to do a lot of damage.

Gremlins are omnipresent and inescapable, but I have my reasons as to why I continue to live in San Diego, work in Phoenix, fly on Southwest Airlines and use wheelchairs made by Hands On Concepts. I’m fully aware that I take a chance every time I get on a plane, but I try to be risk-averse whenever possible.

After all, the last thing I want is to be filling out paperwork for another broken wheelchair while my angry wife waits for me in a van with two hungry kids.

As always, please share your stories with me at al@pvamag.com

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