Airline damaged her $75,000 wheelchair. Now she’s speaking out.

As soon as Emily Ladau was told her wheelchair wasn’t on the jet bridge after her flight, she knew the aviation system was failing her as a disabled traveler, again.

Ladau explained that her wheelchair was damaged after arriving at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on a Delta Air Lines flight. The feeling of loss and frustration was all too familiar, she said.

"When we landed, a complaint resolution officer came to meet me before I got off of the aircraft and said to me that there’s been an incident – that’s the direct word, incident – that they wouldn’t be bringing my wheelchair to me and that we would have to go find it at baggage claim," Ladau told USA TODAY in an interview. "When I hear that a 450-pound wheelchair fell, I don’t think the result is good."

Her suspicion proved right, and Ladau said it was the third time an airline had significantly damaged her mobility device, not to mention other incidents of damage while traveling.

"The back was completely smashed in, there were pieces that had been broken off the back, there were pieces broken on all sides of the chair," Ladau said. "I knew immediately that it was unusable and unfixable."

An author and disability rights advocate, Ladau flew to Minneapolis on March 9 for a speaking engagement in La Crosse, Wisconsin. She relies on a custom power wheelchair to get around because of a genetic disability called Larsen Syndrome.

She still gave the speech, but said the trip turned into a frustrating reminder of the necessity of her work.

"At the end of the day, I would really like to be out of my job, and I mean that in the most sincere way because all I do is educate about accessibility," she said.

When Ladau received her wheelchair in Minneapolis, she sobbed in the baggage claim area.

"It was the most undignified situation I’ve ever felt in my life," she said. "My wheelchair is such a part of how I move around the world, and I didn’t really get to say goodbye to it. I had to sit there and watch it be rolled away from me in the middle of the airport, and it was just so heartbreaking, this thing I am so attached to in my life."

Delta Air Lines acknowledged the incident in a statement to USA TODAY.

"Delta understands how critical mobility aids are to our customers’ independence, and we sincerely apologize for Ms. Ladau's experience as this did not live up to our standards," the statement said. "Our teams took immediate action and have been actively working with Ms. Ladau to address her needs and listen to her feedback about her experience and suggestions so we can do better. Even one incident of damage to a wheelchair is unacceptable and falls short of the standard of care we strive to provide."

How common is airline wheelchair damage?

U.S. airlines actually showed significant improvement in 2025 compared to 2024 in terms of wheelchair damage rates, but there’s still work to be done.

According to the Department of Transportation, the 10 largest U.S. airlines and their subsidiaries carried 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 the mobility devices they transported in 2024.

But for those whose devices are damaged, the only acceptable number of wheelchair damage reports is zero.

Ladau said she’s not sure how long it will take for her $75,000 custom wheelchair to be replaced, and in the meantime, she’s stuck using a loaner chair from Delta’s contractor that isn’t quite the right size for her.

"My wheelchair is so much an extension of my body, and to use a different one means I’m less aware of how I’m taking up space," she said, adding that if a wheelchair isn’t properly fit to its user, it can cause sores and other injuries.

Emily Ladau documented the damage to her wheelchair before it was taken away.

Ladau said she everyone at Delta she’s worked with to get a resolution has been kind and professional, but she still found the situation frustrating.

"I don’t think this is an issue that anyone who is working on the ground or in the airport should be getting punished for. I think that they are doing all they can to deal with systemic failures," she said. "There’s no excuse at this point for why airlines have not come up with a better system to protect wheelchairs. There’s also no excuse for the fact that the Department of Transportation has stopped working on the accountability and safety measures that the previous administration was so close to finalizing."

The DOT under the Trump administration has delayed implementation of the "dignified air travel" rule passed by the Biden administration in 2024. Regulators under Trump said some of the rule's provisions need further review before they can go into effect.

Ladau added that it was especially frustrating for Delta to have been the airline behind this particular incident, because it was the official U.S. airline of the Olympic and Paralympic Games this winter.

For Ladau, the best possible outcome from this would be an opportunity to do more effective, first-person advocacy.

"I know there are so many advocates and organizations that are already doing this work, but if I can support what’s already being done and move the needle more, I would like to speak to (Delta’s) staff," she said. "I would like to educate them that there is a human being behind every piece of mobility equipment."

Zach Wichter is a travel reporter and writes the Cruising Altitude column for USA TODAY. He is based in New York, and you can reach him at [email protected].