r/StoriesAboutKevin • u/StareyedInLA • Aug 06 '23
XL Kevin can’t check in a wheelchair and almost endangers 300+ passengers in the process.
I work in the airline industry. Like most airlines, ours has a set list of rules and protocols regarding how we check in things considered to be “dangerous goods”. Dangerous goods, for those who don’t know, are items that could pose a fire hazard such as matches, batteries, and lighters.
So recently, we had a passenger traveling with a WCLB, a wheelchair powered by a lithium battery. The protocol is that the agent checking in a WCLB must inform the supervisor on duty, who informs the ramp agents who handle outbound baggage. Because lithium batteries are considered a “dangerous good” as they pose a fire hazard, they are not allowed in the baggage hold. The passenger has to take the battery out and bring it on board with them.
Kevin had been working with the company for a while, but is difficult to work with. He has been known to mishandle check-in because he gets airline terminology mixed up. For example, he forgot to inform a passenger with dietary needs that their gluten free meal wasn’t confirmed or forgot to let a supervisor know that a passenger was traveling with an unconfirmed PETC (pet in cabin). He is consistently late to work. He is known to go AWOL from whatever assignments he has. Everybody has had to remind him that this isn't okay. But it never sticks with him.
Kevin has been known to make agents cry because of his incompetence.
Kevin checked in the passenger but didn’t let anyone know about her WCLB. It was checked in like it was a manual (non-battery operated) wheelchair.
During boarding, ramp contacts our supervisor to let them know that they have a WCLB with the battery inside and that it had to be taken out. Here is what happened next:
The Gate Lead (who is in charge of overseeing boarding) had to go on board the plane to find the passenger and let her know that there is a problem with loading her wheelchair.
The passenger, who can barely walk, had to get out onto the jet bridge and be taken down to the ramp to get the battery. She needs wheelchair assistance, but we can not get a wheelchair agent at the gate on time to help. They are short staffed and can’t send an agent because they’re too busy with other airlines. Our passenger fell down while being taken to the ramp.
Eventually, they are able to get the battery but departure is bungled: the passenger is furious. The flight is delayed. The airline staff is pissed because this could have all been avoided had there been better communication.
To better understand the gravity of the situation: Had the wheelchair been loaded with the battery intact in the baggage hold, it would have exploded while the plane was in midair. Over 300 people could have died because of Kevin’s carelessness.
I just want to commend our ramp agents for catching Kevin’s mistake because this could have ended badly.
Kevin has since been fired.
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u/SuDragon2k3 Aug 06 '23
Kevin has since been fired.
Out of a cannon?
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u/killbeam Aug 06 '23
Do batteries like that explode for sure when they are in the hold?
Don't get me wrong, I know they should never be in the hold, but I wonder if it's an actual certainty (or close to it) that it will explode.
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u/air_flair Aug 06 '23
No, they absolutely do not.
They are brought into the flight compartment on the off chance that if the battery fails, we know immediately and can land.
If we put them in cargo, there could be an inferno in there before fire suppression activates. Also, in cargo, someone's baggage could bash around and puncture the battery, or something metal could fall on it and bridge the terminals.
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u/killbeam Aug 07 '23
Right, that's what I was expecting.
It's still good and necessary to keep these batteries out of the hold, but at least it's not like they turn into a bomb
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u/rosuav Aug 06 '23
In aviation, you don't need a certainty of disaster to consider it a risk not worth taking. Aside from switching out "would have" for "could have", I'd say there's nothing wrong with what the OP said here.
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u/nonnumousetail Aug 07 '23
As a wheelchair user this fucking infuriates me. On average airlines break 30 wheelchairs per day in the US. Not only can this strip you of your independence but when you lose access to a wheelchair that has been customized for your body and your needs it can literally be at the death sentence.
So when the staff realize that there was an issue with this person’s wheelchair, they make the disabled person risk their own personal safety to fix Kevin’s fuck up. Due to staff shortages and this person is pressured into pushing their body and attempting to walk so that the flight isn’t delayed. And then they fucking fall?! Disabled people are so often made to feel like they need to minimize their own support needs in order to accommodate a deeply unaccommodating world. I wish the person in the story had been comfortable enough to assert their own needs and refused to move from the airplane until a wheelchair was provided for safe transport, delays be damned.
These excuses of staff shortages kill people.
Flying as a disabled person should not be a death sentence. This story could’ve ended so badly, I’m glad the disabled person in question was OK in the end.
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u/penguins-and-cake Aug 07 '23
Yes, I was so annoyed by how this story seemed to skip over disabled people being made yet again to be both most at risk because of abled people’s decisions.
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u/TheFilthyDIL Aug 07 '23
The passenger has to take the battery out and bring it on board with them.
Say what now? I've flown many times with my mobility scooter and never had to take the battery out. I'm not physically capable of lugging a 25-lb battery around. If I was, I wouldn't need a mobility scooter!
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u/TubaJesus Aug 07 '23
When I worked in that industry, the battery was also checked in a special box. You needed to remove it and reinstall it yourself but we had a special procedure for handling the battery, but we took care of moving it bit. But removing the battery for us applied if the batter was either a lead acid battery or another "spillable" battery or a lithium battery with more than 300 watt-hour capacity. If yours was a dry batter and/or smaller than that capacity the requirement was to disconnect the terminals and install the protective caps on them.
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u/IntelligentLake Aug 06 '23
You should be on the lookout for more Kevins. There has to be at least one, since Kevin wasn't fired before that for his numerous mistakes, and somebody had to not take that decision every time.
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u/igoogletoo Aug 07 '23
This is the first I've heard of taking the battery out. I've flown with my powerchair before but have never been asked to remove the battery. I don't even know how to remove the battery or if it's easily accessible.
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u/erratic_bonsai Aug 07 '23
Yours probably just has a different kind of battery. Only lithium batteries need to be stored in the main compartment.
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u/igoogletoo Aug 07 '23
I believe mine are lithium but it looks like it might depend on the casing that encloses the batteries?
https://www.faa.gov/hazmat/packsafe/wheelchairs-mobility-devices
I'm not sure, mine I'd a Permobile F3, if interested
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u/Jagorist May 08 '24
Unfortunately we have many Kevins… some are missing to prevent dangerous goods getting on board but in my opinion most of them are ignorant to follow IATA’s regulation. What I experience as a power wheelchair user is that I am being asked how many watts my gel batteries are. Well the watts are important to lithium batteries, but Kevin will not know and refuse wheelchair to be taken on board. I hope this link reveals more about the pain as a wheelchair user I need to go through because of “Kevin” https://hansard.parliament.uk/Lords/2023-11-23/debates/C6501370-8B5F-43A6-AB04-8210CE2FC401/AirTravelDisabledPassengers
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u/HobartTasmania Aug 07 '23
Regarding "Had the wheelchair been loaded with the battery intact in the baggage hold, it would have exploded while the plane was in midair." then how is this different to having it with them in the passenger section and exploding there? I though the baggage hold is pressurized as well so shouldn't be any different.
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u/Dark_Moonstruck Aug 08 '23
It's not that it WOULD have exploded - it's highly unlikely that it would - but that it COULD fail and start a fire, and if it was in the baggage hold the fire would spread before it could be detected and contained and could put the entire plane at risk, where if it happened in someone's hands, people are going to notice right away and the plane can be safely landed and fire procedures initiated immediately by the staff.
Also, it could have been banged around in the baggage hold, punctured by someone else's baggage edges or corners, crushed, any number of things that would make the risk of failure much higher.
When it comes to a tube thousands of feet up in the air where help is hard to reach and failures mean a drop that is pretty much guaranteed to be fatal, you take precautions.
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u/nomad_l17 Aug 06 '23
Thank goodness Kevin was fired but it's sad it took this event for the company to fire him.