When Maria Towns got off her flight to New Orleans she wasn’t surprised to find that her mobility scooter was damaged. She was still disappointed.
“I chose my mobility aid because of how easy it is to get and how easy it is to replace. This isn’t the first time my scooter has been broken by an airline, and it won’t be the last,” she told USA TODAY. “My choice of mobility aid is directly informed by my experience with it breaking during air travel.”
Towns is the president and CEO of the American Association of People with Disabilities and has cerebral palsy. She traveled on Southwest Airlines from Washington, D.C., to New Orleans for work on April 8, but when she arrived, her scooter would not start.
“At first glance, it seemed fine, so I did most of the things you’re supposed to do. I reset the circuit breaker in the battery. I took the battery out and put it back in, but it wouldn’t turn on,” she said.
Southwest staff also tried to disassemble the device, and Town eventually realized that a wire had likely become disconnected in transit.
“Sure enough, on the bottom of the scooter, a big wire had just been pulled,” he said.
It took almost a month to repair his scooter – Town’s claim with the airline was closed on 24 April. When she returned home on April 9, Town had a loaner available for her.
“The expectation is that customers will take their broken or damaged devices with them to their destination,” he said. “What am I going to do with a completely inoperable scooter?”
Town said that in an emergency, it may be difficult to arrange a loan outside of business hours for people who rely on mobility devices.
“A big issue with durable medical equipment providers is that they’re really only open between 9 and 5 p.m.. If you need a device before 9 a.m. or after 5 p.m., it’s really hard to find it,” he said. “People don’t just live their lives between 9 and 5.”
South West’s response
Southwest Airlines acknowledged that they were in contact with Towns after the incident.
“While we do not comment publicly on individual customers’ experiences, we have been in direct contact with this customer to resolve the situation. We are committed to providing a safe, welcoming and accessible travel experience for everyone, including customers with disabilities who travel with assistive devices,” the airline told USA TODAY in a statement. “Our teams work hard every day to support customers with care and respect throughout their journey, and we are constantly looking for opportunities to improve customers’ travel experiences.”
Towne said she was disappointed by Southwest’s slow response and felt she received attention because of her high-profile advocacy role.
“People with disabilities fly airlines all the time and they don’t get any reaction, they don’t even know what’s going on,” he said. “When an airline breaks your mobility device or something you rely on to go about your day, you shouldn’t need to be a high-visibility person to get a response.”
Towne said she received a $200 voucher from Southwest but that an apology was not enough.
“It’s not about making me perfect, it’s about improving services and systems so no person with a disability ever has to experience this again,” Town said. “This will continue to happen to me and any other disabled person who flies. The choice I, and many disabled people, have to consider is: Do I not fly anymore?”
How common is airline wheelchair damage?
US airlines have actually shown significant improvement in 2025 compared to 2024 in terms of wheelchair injury rates, but there is still work to be done.
According to the Department of Transportation, the 10 largest US airlines and their subsidiaries transported 907,259 wheelchairs and other mobility devices in 2025, and the DOT received 9,910 reports of mishandling – a rate of 1.09%. For comparison, carriers mishandled 1.26% of mobility devices transported in 2024.
Zach Vischer is a travel reporter and writes the Cruising Altitude column for USA TODAY. He is based in New York.