A man with cerebral palsy was forced to drag himself off an Air Canada flight after a stewardess told him there wasn’t enough time to get him a wheelchair before the next flight needed to leave.
Rodney Hodgins, 49, was traveling to Las Vegas with his wife Deanna for their anniversary trip in August when they faced the ‘dehumanizing’ experience while disembarking from the flight.
The husband, who wed Deanna last year, uses a motorized wheelchair because he has cerebral palsy and is unable to walk.
But he was forced to hoist and drag his body down the aisle of the Air Canada flight – in front of dozens of passengers and airline staff – because the crew couldn’t provide him a wheelchair.
Rodney Hodgins, 49, was traveling to Las Vegas with his wife Deanna for their anniversary trip in August when they were faced with the horrific and ‘dehumanizing’ experience while disembarking from the flight
The husband, who wed Deanna last year (pictured at their wedding), uses a motorized wheelchair because he has cerebral palsy and is unable to walk
An aisle wheelchair is a narrow version of a normal wheelchair, used to help disabled passengers exit the plane through the tight spaces.
Rodney dragged himself from row 12 to the front of the plane in excruciating pain, while his wife crawled behind, trying to help him, after a flight attendant told them no help was coming.
The couple, from Prince George in British Columbia, travel once or twice a year and know what is meant to happen when disembarking a plane.
Furious Deanna slammed Air Canada for their shameful response.
She also said she did not hear from the airline after making a formal response, until Rodney received a call and an offering of $2,000 flight voucher for a future flight.
Deanna wrote on Facebook: ‘Did you know Rod had to pull his own body off a flight from row 12 on an Air Canada flight this summer???? because the crew didn’t want to wait for the team to come assist in getting him off the plane…
‘The flight crewman said to us that we would have to ‘get to the front of the plane’ because ‘they had to turn the plane around’…. I looked stunned at the crewman and said he can’t walk – how are we supposed to get up there.
‘He replied ‘well I don’t know but we need to turn the plane around we have another flight…”
She continued: ‘I was so mad at watching him fight to drag his uncooperative body so slowly and painfully… I fought his muscle spasms dragging and pushing his legs and feet to try and help…
‘Finally at the cockpit, he got on my back and I dragged him while he helped take some weight with his stiffened legs (in full spasm) so I could get him in his chair.
Air Canada said in a statement: ‘We use the services of a third party wheelchair assistance specialist in Las Vegas. ‘Following our investigation into how this serious service lapse occurred, we will be evaluating other Mobility Assistance service partners in Las Vegas’
‘He suffered for days after while we were in Vegas… I felt so bad for him…. But he’s so tough and determined he fought through the pain so we could enjoy our anniversary there…
‘We’re looking for your help – please share this so Air Canada sees it and will finally deal with what they did to him this summer – we gave them lots of time to reach out and try to resolve this.’
Deanna said: ‘As many of you know my husband has a motorized wheelchair because of having spastic Cerebral Palsy – he is unable to walk. We travel 1-2 times a year.
‘After planning a trip for 8 months and making sure we took care of all our responsibilities for disabled travelling, air Canada failed us in every sense.
‘My husband was forced by Air Canada employees to drag his own body off a flight because they needed to ‘turn the plane around – and had no staff to assist him’.
‘8 cleaning crew, 2 flight attendants, the captain and the co captain watched as my husband drug his uncooperative body from Row 12 to the front of the plane.
‘As he dragged his body – I could see bits of his dignity and along with strength slowly fall… I tried my best to take some of his weight off his legs and help him but we both ran out of gas….
Rodney dragged himself from row 12 to the front of the plane in excruciating pain, while his wife crawled behind him, after a flight attendant told them no help was coming
‘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.
‘Rod is the most beautiful human on the planet and didn’t deserve this at all…. Please share and tag Air Canada if you can – we don’t know what else we can do to get their attention…. Please reach out to us to get more info if you need.’
Air Canada said in a statement: ‘We use the services of a third party wheelchair assistance specialist in Las Vegas.
‘Following our investigation into how this serious service lapse occurred, we will be evaluating other Mobility Assistance service partners in Las Vegas.’
According to CBC, in a statement, the Canadian Transportation Agency said ‘airlines must follow the obligations set out in the regulations and are subject to administrative monetary penalties for non-compliance.’
‘Even in the absence of a complaint, when we are made aware of an incident that could be a violation of the regulations, the agency’s designated enforcement officers look into the incident.
‘The agency is committed to ensuring that persons with disabilities have air travel experiences that are as free of barriers as possible.’