Air Canada has issued an apology after a man with spastic cerebral palsy was forced to drag himself off a plane in Las Vegas because the airline failed to provide a wheelchair. Rodney Hodgins, 49, from British Columbia, was travelling with his wife Deanna to celebrate their anniversary in August.
Upon landing, a flight attendant told the couple there was insufficient time to bring a wheelchair on board before the aircraft needed to prepare for its next departure. When Mr Hodgins said he could not walk, the attendant repeated the request for him to leave the plane unaided.
Mr Hodgins used his upper body strength to haul himself past 12 rows of seats while his wife held his legs. In a Facebook post, Mrs Hodgins described the incident as devastating, saying her husband's human rights had been trampled on and that Air Canada had failed to respond to them.
Air Canada acknowledged the service lapse, stating it would review its partnership with the third-party wheelchair assistance provider in Las Vegas. The company offered Mr Hodgins a C$2,000 flight voucher, but he said compensation would not fix the underlying problem, expressing a desire to prevent similar incidents for other disabled passengers.
This incident follows a separate case in October when Air Canada lost the wheelchair of Canada's chief accessibility officer, Stephanie Cadieux, who called for improved accessibility measures in the airline industry.
