Posted on 10/30/2023 10:12:10 AM PDT by DFG
Air Canada has been forced to apologize after a man with spastic cerebral palsy was forced to drag himself off a plane when the flagship carrier failed to provide a wheelchair for him.
Rodney Hodgins, 49, a hardware salesman from British Columbia who requires the use of a motorized wheelchair, flew to Las Vegas with his wife, Deanna, to celebrate their anniversary in August.
But when the plane landed, the flight attendant told the couple there wasn’t time to get a wheelchair on board before the plane had to prepare for takeoff again, Deanna Hodgins wrote in a recent Facebook post.
When the attendant said Hodgins would have to pull himself off the plane alone, the couple at first thought she was joking – but then she repeated the request.
“I said, ‘Of course I can’t. I’m in a wheelchair. I can’t walk,’” he told the Canadian Press.
Hodgins was forced to use his upper body strength to haul himself past 12 rows of seats, with his wife holding his legs.
In her Facebook post, Deanna Hodgins said the event left the couple devastated.
“It took us struggling, in front of a dozen people as some looked away and others looked on with shame, to get him off that plane … he hurt his legs and I hurt my back – emotionally a lot more was hurt … my husband’s human rights were trampled on and Air Canada won’t respond to us, and never did reach out like they promised,” she wrote. “Rod is the most beautiful human on the planet and didn’t deserve this at all.”
She said the couple had planned the trip for eight months and made sure they took care of all requirements on their end. “Air Canada failed us in every sense.”
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
At the very least, the flight crew could have done that.
In today’s amoral, Might=Right world weakness is the sign of Wrongness.
A bunch of “men” were standing at the front watching him struggle. I hope he has to go to the bank every day because of how much money he wins.
Exactly !!!
Unbelievable story!
No time left for you
On my way to better things
(No time left for you)
I’ll find myself some wings
(No time left for you)
Distant roads are calling me
(No time left for you)
Mm-da, mm-da, mm-da, mm-da, mm-da
Absolutely, but with that not done how could people not offer help?
LOL
Have the wheelchair on the GANGWAY waiting for him. Did they NOT order one?
That’s really pretty bad. Getting a wheelchair at the airport is not a big deal. I did it many times for my Mom.
If the disabled passenger calls one of the stewardi an off color name, he would have been assisted by a TSA.
Could have just denied boarding on grounds of Canadian nuisance law. Call a swat team from us justice dept to make sure he remains home bound.
Has Trudeau frozen his bank account yet?
Where’s the violent riot from the onlookers? Worth jail time for me. If you have any worth before God....that was the moment.
talk about a no frills airline...
He’ll be flying free for a while ... and a wheelchair will be readily available each time.
Meanwhile. Fatties in US airports are shuttled around with personal servants in wheel chairs. Most disgusting thing I saw was at the Denver international immigration / customs warehouse where one fatty after another was shuffled to the head of the line in from of hundreds of people who had been waiting for two hours.
I am leery of this story though... There always seems to be more to these stories.
Why stop at money? He should demand that his disability be healed. And that wight track tapes be brought back into use.
I have a somewhat famous comedian friend who has palsy, and flies frequently. He usually has a hard time getting any beer on flights coz they think he’s already drunk. He works that stuff into his act, but it happens often.
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