Qantas to ban some wheelchairs

[NM]

From News.com.au

QANTAS will ban some wheelchair-bound patrons from certain aircraft because their chairs don't safely fit through cargo doors.

Several Qantas staff had been seriously injured, including one permanently disabled, while trying to load the electric wheelchairs into some planes, the airline said.

Qantas said some electric wheelchairs would be excluded from flights on their fleet of 737s, 717s and Aerospace 146s because of the problem.

 

[JohnK]

Several Qantas staff had been seriously injured, including one permanently disabled, while trying to load the electric wheelchairs into some planes, the airline said.

I haven't seen the cargo doors of an aircraft to be able to comment but someone else may be able to confirm the accuracy of this statement.

Ms Grant said the cargo doors on the aircraft were not large enough to safely accommodate wheelchairs with a height greater than 84cm, 70cm and 99cm respectively.

Again I am not sure but I didn't think that anything was loaded manually onto an aircraft, especially something that weighed 150kg.

 

[NM]

I haven't seen the cargo doors of an aircraft to be able to comment but someone else may be able to confirm the accuracy of this statement.

Confirmed
[quote="JohnK']
Again I am not sure but I didn't think that anything was loaded manually onto an aircraft, especially something that weighed 150kg.[/quote]
On the aircraft specifically referenced in this statement, all loading is manual. The only assistance is the use of a mobile conveyor belt on some aircraft.

Its only 767, A330 and 747 that have containerised freight loading capabilities, and those aircraft are all ok for electric wheelchair carriage.