A Beyoncé fan with cerebral palsy was denied boarding a flight to see her perform in Seattle because his wheelchair was too tall.
Jon Hetherington, 34, from Oregon, had been looking forward to the concert for months, but his dream was shattered when the airline told him that his wheelchair was too tall to fit on the plane.
In an interview with TODAY.com, Hetherington explained that when he tried to check in his chair, an Alaska Airlines employee informed him that his wheelchair “exceeded requirements to fly” by four inches. He was confused, considering he took an Alaska Airlines flight to Seattle just a few weeks prior for the opening night of singer Janelle Monáe’s tour.
On the Alaska Airlines website, the maximum dimensions for a wheelchair that can fit on a Boeing airplane are 500 lb / 34” (86 cm) in height by 45” (114 cm) in width. The dimensions for an Airbus are listed as “500 lb / 46” (116 cm) in height by 71” (180 cm) in width.
“Our Boeing aircraft have dimension limitations when it comes to loading battery-powered mobility aids, like a wheelchair, into the cargo hold,” an Alaska Airlines spokesperson said in an email to TODAY.com.
“I went outside and that’s when I recorded the TikTok while I was waiting for a ride to come get me,” he says. The avid social media user, who has about 23,000 followers on TikTok, posted a video on Sept. 14 to simply vent about his experience.
“I had never heard that before. That it exceeded requirements to fly and then it was too tall,” Hetherington shares.
Beyoncé’s Beyhive’s began to rally. A few days later, a representative connected to the singer’s team reached out to him. Soon, he was headed to Arlington, Texas, to see her show at the AT&T Stadium on Sept. 21, fulfilling his lifelong wish of going to a Beyoncé concert.
“I was excited,” he says. “I felt like it was very surreal…Here I am, what eight days prior, and it gets snatched away.”
He continues, “To have that turn around because of this incredible response and to make that a reality is a huge thing.”
Jon Hetherington missed Beyoncé’s show in Seattle after an airline said it could not accommodate his electric wheelchair. Beyoncé’s fans worked to get him to another show. https://t.co/n0ABqZsras
— The New York Times (@nytimes) September 22, 2023
