Delta attendant threatens wheelchair passenger will be deplaned by TSA ‘with their guns’

Cory Lee said he wants to have a conversation with Delta's crews about how to interact with people with disabilities. Photo / Instagram; Curb Free with Cory Lee

A travel blogger waiting for a wheelchair to meet him on a Delta flight, was surprised to be told he would be taken off a plane at gunpoint if he didn’t hurry off the aircraft.

Cory Lee who is an aviation and travel blogger based out of Georgia was diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy aged 2, and used a wheelchair for most of his life. He has blogged his experience travelling the world to his award winning website Curb Free Cory Lee.

However, being threatened for not disembarking a plane quickly enough was new to him.

“A Delta flight attendant literally threatened us by saying TSA would “make us get off with their guns,” he wrote to his social media channels.

On 13 November, he landed in Atlanta international on a Delta Service from Santiago de Chile. Last to be able to get off the plane there was some delay with getting his wheelchair to him.

Refusing to get off the plane until his wheelchair was ready, eventually this delay turned heated. He began filming the exchange with Delta crew who were insisting he use the ‘aisle wheelchair’ until his personal chair arrived.

Eventually, exasperated, one of the crew told Lee that Transport Security Agents would be forced to remove him “with all their guns and stuff” if he did not take the chair he was being offered.

The passenger had experienced long waits for his wheelchair before. He did not want to be stuck in the aisle chair, and risk developing pressure sores.

“They were talking to each other, saying, ‘He just doesn’t want to get off the plane,’” Lee told Fox News Digital. “Believe me, I definitely wanted to get off the plane.”

In an interview with Fox News the travel blogger said he was aware of his rights and would not move until the chair was ready.

In America wheelchair users are given rights to refuse being deplaned under the Air Carrier Access Act.

“You can request that your wheelchair or walker be returned to you on the jet way at your destination airport and not the baggage claim area. Airlines are required to return wheelchairs to users as closely as possible to the door of the aircraft if requested,” reads the Department of Transport’s website.

Eventually an airport employee arrived to say the wheelchair had arrived on the Jet bridge, defusing the situation.

In a statement issued by the airline, Delta said they were looking into the matter.

“The exchange in this video does not reflect the high standard of care Delta people aspire to every day,” read the statement.

“We are reviewing what occurred here and will follow up as appropriate with our people. Delta has reached out to this customer directly to hear more about what they experienced and to offer further apologies.”

Cory Lee took his first trip internationally to the Bahamas, aged 15. Since then he has visited all seven continents, which he believes is a first for a traveller in a wheelchair.

He hopes that more airline crew will receive accessibility training from people who live with disabilities so similar incidents don’t happen in future.