A second disabled B.C. man has come forward to share his Air Canada horror story after hearing the story of another B.C. man who was pulled off a plane in Las Vegas.
Professional stand-up comedian Ryan LaChance was returning to the Lower Mainland from the Halifax Comedy Festival in early May. When he landed at Vancouver International Airport, he said he was expecting an Eagle Lift to help him get off the plane from the passenger seat.
The Eagle Lift is a device designed to transfer a disabled person from the passenger seat to a wheelchair.
What he got instead was two Air Canada employees trying to manually lift him into a wheelchair in the aisle.
“I kept falling out of the seat because they wouldn’t fasten my seat belt properly. My foot kept getting stuck in the aisle,” he told Global News.
“The (employee) behind me wasn’t paying attention to his partner. His partner pulled my leg and pulled me off the seat and I landed on the floor. I landed really hard. Yo.”
After the fall, LaChance said two people tried to move him down the aisle in a wheelchair for the next 45 minutes.
“When I got the bruise on my back, my caregivers and I kept saying, ‘You’re doing it wrong.’ I said, ‘You need an Eagle lift,’ and they kept trying to pick me up, and they kept saying, ‘You’re doing it wrong. Many times I slipped and landed on the ground,” he said.
So the staff decided to take the Eagle lift, and it took about 5 minutes from the time the lift arrived to the time we got off the plane.
“I felt like Dorothy.” wizard of oz, I’m just clicking my heels thinking, “I want to go home.” It was a long flight, I had to go from Halifax to Toronto to Vancouver,” LaChance said.
“All the joy I got from the Halifax Comedy Festival just evaporated.”
The stand-up comedian said he was finally able to go home, but was forced to bed for several days to recover.
“I had bruises, my whole body hurt, it felt like I was in an MMA match,” he said.
Lachance said she filed a formal complaint with Air Canada about the experience, but was only able to do so a few days ago.
“I had to get a doctor’s note for all my medical history. … It took quite a long time,” he said.
“This is not the first time something like this has happened to me. This also happened when I flew to Penticton and was dropped off there (on Air Canada) as well.”
Lachance said he recently spoke with an Air Canada employee and filed a verbal complaint with the airline.
“I got a lot of ‘sorry’s[from Air Canada]but when you get through something like this, the word sorry doesn’t mean anything. That’s what people expect. It’s not too much,” LaChance said.
LaChance said he wants Air Canada to do two things: change its disability accessibility policy and properly train its staff.
“Please use the Eagle Lift if you wish. I’m not looking for financial gain. I’m speaking up for those who don’t have a voice. If this is happening to me, I’m not asking for it. It’s happening to people, too,” he said.
“By sharing my story, others can be encouraged to speak up and maybe make a difference.”
Air Canada declined to be interviewed about LaChance’s incident, but a spokesperson said in an email that “this customer did not receive the level of service that we normally provide.”
“We are in contact with him to resolve this issue,” they said.
Another B.C. man with a disability reportedly had to be pulled from an Air Canada plane in Las Vegas, prompting LaChance to share his story.
Prince George resident Rodney Hodgins said he also wants to push for change to prevent other people with disabilities from going through what he went through.
Hodgins, 49, who is unable to walk due to spastic cerebral palsy, initially thought the flight attendant was joking when she told him she had to get off the plane, but was shocked when she was told the second time. He said he was angry. Disembarking without assistance.
The hardware salesman said he had no choice but to use his upper body strength to pull himself into the aisle of the plane while his wife Deanna held on to his immobilized legs.
Mr Hodgins said the experience, which occurred while he was traveling with his wife to celebrate their wedding anniversary in August, left him feeling violated.
On Friday, The Canadian Press reported that Air Canada admitted it breached Canada’s disability rules in Hodgins’ case.
— With files from Canadian Press
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