A flyer who required special assistance says he was left little choice but to haul himself along the floor of an Air Canada plane in order to disembark.
British Columbian, Rodney Hodgins, 49, lives with cerebral palsy and is an experienced motorised wheelchair user. He has even adapted his own wheelchair so that it can be taken on flights and stored in the fore cargo area.
No assistance, no aisle seat
In August 2023, he flew with his wife Deanna on an Air Canada route from Vancouver to Las Vegas, where the couple planned to celebrate their wedding anniversary. However, when the plane touched down, Mr Hodgins was told he would have no assistance in getting off the craft and that no “aisle seat” (a narrower wheelchair adapted for use on planes) was available for him to use.
Hodgins was made to feel an inconvenience to other passengers.
I thought, they don’t care about me, they just want me to get off this plane.
Rodney Hodgins
To avoid any further disruption, he dragged himself to where his wheelchair was – 12 rows away – a process he described to CBC News as “quite painful”.
What’s more, the couple’s special anniversary trip was left in tatters, as Hodgins has explained: “It hurt my legs. For three days I felt terrible on my holiday”.
Air Canada customer services have offered Mr Hodgins a $2,000 voucher to spend on future trips, but he has requested the carrier also update protocols so that there is always someone on hand to meet flights where a person with different needs is about to disembark.
Third-party
In a statement, Air Canada has deflected blame onto a subcontractor: “We use the services of a third-party wheelchair assistance specialist in Las Vegas,” it said.
Following our investigation into how this serious service lapse occurred, we will be evaluating other Mobility Assistance service partners in Las Vegas.
Air Canada
Passenger rights
A series of incidents where passengers with physical differences have been neglected, manhandled, and even left in a vegetative state by air crew, has raised concern about how the passenger rights are respected in the transportation sector.
A new ruling was introduced by the U.S. Department of Transportation earlier in 2023 to coincide with the 33rd anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Authorized by the Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA), the requirement dictates that both carriers and manufacturers adapt the size of airplane bathrooms, add grab rails, improve signage, and implement training. But these changes only apply to newly-built single-aisle craft.
