A disabled traveler flying with United Airlines said she was locked in the jet bridge without a wheelchair after landing.
"I am internationally stuck on the jet bridge with the plane closed all by myself, nowhere to sit – just waiting, hoping that they will bring somebody to come rescue me," TikTok user Birdie said in a video. In a subsequent video, she said she was flying from the U.S. to Canada, and a flight attendant told her a wheelchair should be waiting for her.
However, a gate agent later said the wheelchair request was not on her booking. The traveler had received wheelchair access earlier during the trip and "didn’t think that there was an issue with that part of my reservation."
The flight attendants offered to assist her, but they were
not allowed to accompany her through the secured area of the airport. "So they ended up having to leave, and they all kind of left together, but nobody really said anything, and I’m just kind of waiting there, waiting there, and from the top of the jet bridge I heard, 'I’m gonna have to lock you in here,'" she recalled. "And I wasn’t even sure if she was talking to me. I was like, this can’t be real … Sure enough, several minutes go by and there’s nobody and I’m like, 'Hello?'"
The traveler did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
United told USA TODAY that its "team in Vancouver responded as soon as we learned of this customer's need for assistance, with one agent checking on her frequently while waiting for the person who could escort her through the airport" during the Sept. 9 trip.
"We take seriously the unique travel needs of customers who require the use of wheelchairs, and have reached out to this customer to further discuss her experience," the airline said in an emailed statement.
The traveler estimated she was left alone on the jet bridge for 20 to 30 minutes, according to an additional post, until the gate agent returned accompanied by a man with a wheelchair, who escorted the passenger through customs.
"I’m terrified," she recalled feeling in one of the videos. "Like, what is gonna happen? Are they gonna come back for me? Does anybody else know that I’m here? What if this jet bridge starts moving?"
The TikTok user said in another post that she didn’t feel comfortable flying home and her friend drove her to the border, where her husband and mother were picking her up. "It’s sad, and we shouldn't have to go through this at all," she said in one of the posts. "Like, disabled people are people, and we deserve respect and kindness."
Contributing: Eve Chen, USA TODAY
Nathan Diller is a consumer travel reporter for USA TODAY based in Nashville. You can reach him at ndiller@usatoday.com.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Traveler says she was locked in jet bridge without wheelchair
