‘You are invisible’: Wheelchair passenger says she has been left stranded at airport multiple times

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV/Gray News) - A woman using a wheelchair in North Carolina said she has been stranded multiple times at the Charlotte-Douglas International Airport.

After three years of frustrating delays, Stacey Bradley is speaking out about her experiences with American Airlines’ contracted company, Prospect Airport Services.

According to WBTV, Prospect Airport Services often fulfills the request when a passenger books a ticket with American Airlines and is in need of a wheelchair.

Bradley started booking a wheelchair with her airline tickets in 2022.

“Both of my hips and their bone on bone, excruciating, getting worse. It’s a genetic thing,” she said.

Bradley is a frequent flyer between New York and Charlotte for her doctor’s appointments and said she has “literal panic attacks” when she books the flight knowing she will be flying to Charlotte.

This anxiety comes from the repeated issues she has had when arriving at Charlotte’s airport, starting with the first time she booked a wheelchair.

“I got to Charlotte, and there was no wheelchair, and I waited,” she said. “I had the gate agent call, and no one showed.”

On that first trip, she ended up slowly walking all the way from the E concourse to baggage claim.

Six weeks later, she flew again, and the same thing happened. When she asked questions, she was told the company was “understaffed.”

On the next flight Bradley had through Charlotte, she did receive a wheelchair. However, there was no one there to push it.

Two other times Bradley said she was pushed halfway through the concourse and then abandoned.

“I defined myself as a lawn ornament. You know, they just put you in a wheelchair and place you somewhere,” she said.

Bradley said there were several times after waiting up to an hour she and another person in a wheelchair were pushed together by one employee.

“It’s wheelchair to wheelchair...it’s banging when you’re in pain, and your wheelchairs are just slamming against each other. It’s excruciating,” she said. “And [the other customer] had a cane across her lap and a walker. So she’s holding on to a lot, and I am getting kidney-shotted with this cane.”

Bradley also said there were two trips when American Airlines pilots had to step in.

“So the pilot left the plane to go to the gate agent to figure out why there was a delay in getting the wheelchair,” she said. “He comes back in, ‘They’re coming.’ They never came. So, the flight attendant helped me walk down from the gate or to the gate from the plane, and I just sat, and I sat, and I sat.”

WBTV reached out to American Airlines and Prospect Airport Services but said they never got a response from the companies.

Bradley said flying through other airports has been seamless and she wishes she could avoid traveling through Charlotte altogether.

“Do not fly into Charlotte if you are in a wheelchair. You are invisible. You are not human. You are not worth dealing with. And they will treat you as such,” she said.

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