LV Delta employees praise new chair for disabled passengers

Thursday, Aug. 3, 2000 | 10:50 a.m.

A hydraulic chair being tested by Delta Air Lines at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas has gotten high marks from passengers with disabilities as well as airline employees who say it should reduce the number of on-the-job injuries.

The Delta Air Chair, an experimental lift chair that transfers wheelchair-bound passengers from their chairs to their seats on board the airplane, is being tested at 16 Delta stations across the United States. The chair, developed by the Theradyne Division of Kurt Manufacturing, Jordan, Minn., was recommended by Delta's customer improvement committee in Orlando, Fla.

Delta is in a 60-day test period with the chair, logging comments from passengers who use it.

Gay Whittecar, a gate supervisor for Delta at McCarran, said she hasn't heard a single negative comment about the chair since it was introduced in June. She said the chair is used about six times a day for Delta's 27 daily Las Vegas operations.

"It's really easy to slide them (passengers) over," Whittecar said, "and that helps with our backs too."

The chair has a series of hydraulic mechanisms that allow the seat height to be raised and lowered easily. It has moveable arms that help ease transfers and the seat is narrower than the standard wheelchair to move easily down the aisle of any plane.

"I've seen employees injure themselves trying to lift passengers, so this chair not only helps the passenger, but it helps our employees," said Ron Schappacher, assistant manager of Delta's Las Vegas station.

A Delta spokeswoman said the airline does not track the number of employee injuries attributed to transferring passengers from wheelchairs to their seats on planes.