A Yonkers woman who was recently crowned Ms. Wheelchair America says she had been left in “excruciating pain” and suffers back pain daily after Delta Air Lines damaged her highly specialized powered wheelchair during a recent flight.
Known for her disability rights advocacy work, Latavia Sturdivant was traveling back home in New York after attending an event connected with her campaigning.
As Latavia’s wheelchair is quite large, it had to be left in the care of Delta for the duration of the flight so that it could be checked into the hold of the aircraft. Once the plane had landed and she had been repatriated with her mobility device, Latavia discovered that the chair had been badly damaged.
Given that Latavia’s chair has been built specifically for her, she explained: “There is no other chair that I can use because it keeps my body in proper alignment, prevents me from having contractions, and so Delta needs to do better of taking proper care of our [disabled passengers] wheelchairs.”
It remains unclear how Latavia’s chair came to be so badly damaged, but in a statement, a spokesperson for Delta said the airline would cover the cost of repairs in full, adding in a statement:
“Delta understands the fundamental impact that any damaged mobility aid has on an individual and their daily life.”
“We sincerely apologize for this customer’s experience that did not live up to our standards, and we are in touch with them to ensure we make things right.”
Disability rights campaigners have long complained about airlines damaging wheelchairs, sometimes beyond repair, through clumsy and, at times, negligent and even deliberate mishandling.
As U.S.-based airlines go, however, Delta is statistically the least likely to return a disabled person’s mobility device damaged. In January, official FAA data shows that Delta had a mishandling rate of just 0.29 per 100 mobility devices enplaned.
In comparison, the second-best U.S. carrier was Allegiant, with a mishandling rate of 0.91 per 100 mobility devices, while JetBlue trailed other airlines with a mishandling rate of 1.68 per 100 mobility devices enplaned.
American Airlines, which has long been the worst major U.S. carrier for mishandling mobility devices, improved its mishandling rate slightly to 1.55 in January 2026.
Delta Flight Products, an engineering subsidiary of Delta Air Lines, has been working on new accessibility products, including a first-of-its-kind Domestic First Class and Economy seat that can transform into a space in which a wheelchair user can remain in their chair for the duration of a flight.
The two seat types have a default ‘standard mode’ but can be transformed into PRM (Persons with Reduced Mobility) mode in just 90 seconds, making room for a powered wheelchair to lock into place.
The airline has also been working on the first-ever accessible forward lavatory on single-aisle planes like the Airbus A320 series and Boeing 737s.
