The complaint says a rushed boarding process left one assistant and an unsecured chair.
LAS VEGAS, Nev. — The family of a 24-year-old West Virginia man who used a power wheelchair has sued Allegiant in Nevada, saying he died after falling while boarding a flight at Huntington Tri-State Airport and that the airline failed to provide safe assistance.
The lawsuit grows out of a March 28, 2024, boarding incident involving Hunter Adkins, who had muscular dystrophy and relied on a motorized wheelchair. His father says Adkins was being moved into a narrower boarding chair so he could enter the plane when he fell, suffered blunt-force injuries and died about 15 hours later. The case now puts fresh attention on how airlines and their contractors handle boarding help for disabled passengers, especially during the most physical part of air travel, the transfer from a personal chair to an aircraft doorway or seat.
According to the complaint, Adkins was traveling with his father, Tony Adkins, and his 9-year-old brother when they arrived to board an Allegiant flight at the airport near Huntington, W.Va. The lawsuit says Hunter Adkins was met at the bottom of the ramp and transferred from his own motorized wheelchair into a boarding chair for the trip to the aircraft door. As the chair was being moved up the ramp and across a transition plate near the doorway, the complaint says, it tipped and threw him face-first to the ground. The lawsuit alleges the assistant pushing the chair and the chair itself then fell on top of him. Adkins was taken to a local hospital and died the next morning, March 29, 2024. His father and younger brother witnessed the fall, the complaint says, turning the case from a routine negligence claim into one that also seeks damages tied to emotional distress.
Tony Adkins says the fall was not an unavoidable accident but the result of a boarding process that had broken down before his son ever reached the plane. The complaint alleges the captain wanted the aircraft ready for takeoff quickly and that workers who were supposed to help with Hunter Adkins’ transfer were reassigned to load baggage. That left one assistant to manage a transfer the family says required more help and safer equipment. The lawsuit further alleges the chair used on the ramp was not the proper aisle wheelchair and did not have the needed safety straps. It says the assistant pushed, rather than pulled, the chair up the ramp. Because of his disability, the complaint says, Hunter Adkins could not brace for the impact. Public reports describing the lawsuit do not include a full defense from Allegiant, and they do not make clear whether the person handling the chair was a direct airline employee or a contractor providing wheelchair service for the flight.
Federal disability rules already required airlines to provide prompt and timely boarding and deplaning assistance for passengers with disabilities and to use properly trained personnel, boarding wheelchairs, ramps or lifts as needed. The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Airline Passengers with Disabilities Bill of Rights also says disabled travelers who identify themselves as needing extra time or help must be allowed to board before other passengers, and that airlines cannot leave a passenger who is not independently mobile unattended in a wheelchair or similar device for more than 30 minutes. The family lawsuit does not argue that the rules were missing. It argues that existing obligations were not followed during a hurried transfer at the aircraft door. The complaint also says people standing near the entrance to the plane saw the transfer unfolding and did not step in before the fall. No public investigative report on the incident had been cited in the reporting reviewed for this article.
The lawsuit also lands in the middle of a broader federal push to tighten protections for travelers who use wheelchairs. On Feb. 29, 2024, just weeks before Adkins’ fall, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced a proposed rule that the department called the biggest expansion of rights for passengers who use wheelchairs since 2008. DOT said at the time that reporting airlines had mishandled 11,527 wheelchairs and scooters in 2023 and said the proposal was meant to require safer, more dignified assistance. A final rule published in December 2024 and effective Jan. 16, 2025, said its purpose was to reduce fatal and nonfatal injuries, clarify what safe and dignified assistance means and require annual hands-on training for airline personnel who physically assist disabled passengers or handle personal wheelchairs. The Adkins lawsuit concerns conduct alleged to have happened before that final rule took effect, but the rulemaking shows the government had already been focused on the same type of boarding risks.
The case was filed in Clark County District Court in Nevada against Allegiant Travel Company and Allegiant Air. That venue places the lawsuit in the state where Allegiant Travel Company is based, in Las Vegas. The complaint seeks a jury trial and damages of more than $15,000, along with other relief tied to wrongful death, negligence and allegations involving hiring, training and supervision. It also seeks damages related to the emotional harm the family says came from watching the fall happen in real time. In a public statement carried by local and national outlets, Allegiant did not address the specific allegations. “While we cannot comment on pending litigation, we extend our deepest sympathies to the family and loved ones affected by this heartbreaking situation,” the airline said. At this stage, the public fight is still at the pleadings level. The family’s filing lays out what it says happened; the airline will have the chance to answer in court.
For the family, the lawsuit is framed as both a wrongful death case and a challenge to how disabled travelers are treated when travel plans move from the ticket counter to the airplane door. Jim Murphy, an attorney for the Adkins family, said in a statement that the case is meant to seek justice for Hunter Adkins while also helping other travelers with disabilities. Murphy said the family hopes the claim can “help bring about change.” That goal does not alter the legal questions the court must sort out, including who controlled the boarding process, who supplied the chair and assistant, what training had been provided and whether the transfer method met the standards in force at the time. But it does help explain why the lawsuit has drawn attention beyond West Virginia and Nevada. It is not only about one fatal fall. It is also about the moment disabled passengers are most dependent on airline systems working exactly as intended.
Hunter Adkins’ death happened at Huntington Tri-State Airport, a commercial airport serving the Huntington region and nearby communities in West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio. In the family’s account, the key moments lasted only seconds, from the transfer at the bottom of the ramp to the tipping point at the doorway. Yet the aftermath has stretched for two years, from the hospital trip on March 28, 2024, to a wrongful death case now beginning in Nevada. The next steps are likely to be procedural: service of the complaint, a response from the defendants and early court scheduling in Clark County. No hearing date was included in the public reports reviewed for this article.
The case remains in its opening stage, with the family’s allegations now before a Nevada court and Allegiant publicly limiting its response to condolences. The next clear milestone is the airline’s formal answer or other first court filing as the lawsuit moves deeper into the Clark County docket.
Author note: Last updated March 30, 2026.