American Airlines has been fined a record $50m for the way it treats disabled passengers needing wheelchair assistance and for damaging thousands of wheelchairs.

The fines follow a Department of Transportation investigation into the airline that it says found “cases of unsafe physical assistance that at times resulted in injuries and undignified treatment of wheelchair users.”

The department also discovered that the airline repeatedly failed to prompt wheelchair assistance and mishandled or damaged thousands of wheelchairs over a five-year period.

“The era of tolerating poor treatment of wheelchair users on aeroplanes is over,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg declared to reporters.

He said American Airlines “appeared to be one of the worst offenders,” but the problems “are not confined to one airline”.

Buttigieg said the department is conducting similar investigations into other airlines, but would not name them.

Formal complaints

It was prompted in part by three formal complaints the Paralysed Veterans of America filed against American Airlines.

Investigators took a close look at a video of an incident at Miami International Airport last year. Workers slid a wheelchair down a ramp that crashed heavily at the bottom of the chute and slid along the concrete.

Department of Transportation figures show that from 2019 through 2023, American mishandled more than 10,760 wheelchairs and mobility scooters.

Federal regulations require airlines to return wheelchairs and other mobility devices in the condition in which they were received and to provide passengers with disabilities prompt assistance to get on and off aircraft.

Carl Blake, the CEO of Paralysed Veterans of America, praised the department’s action.

“We are pleased to see DOT making such a strong statement for how it will hold airlines accountable for jeopardising the well-being of passengers with disabilities, particularly wheelchair and scooter users,” Blake said in a statement.

American Airlines said it is making significant improvements to how it handles wheelchairs, investing more than $175m this year on new equipment, training and other steps to improve the travel experience for people with disabilities.

American said it has also cut its rate of mishandling wheelchairs and power scooters by more than 20 percent and that it is now receiving complaints from fewer than one out of every 1,000 customers using wheelchair assistance.

As part of the penalty, the airline will have to pay $25m and will receive credit for $25m spent on improving its practices, including compensation to customers.

The previous record penalty was $2m against United Airlines in 2016, which was reduced to $700,000 after United got credit for compensating passengers and other spending.