Hidden-camera investigation reveals hardships wheelchair-bound flyers must endure: reports

A hidden-camera investigation has shed light on the humiliating and at times frightening challenges people bound to wheelchairs must endure when they’re flying — just as the Canadian government demanded Air Canada defend itself against a string of reports detailing how they’ve allegedly mistreated customers with disabilities.

The long-running Canadian consumer-watchdog series “Marketplace” conducted the investigation, which in part followed a woman named Alessia Di Virgilio as she tried to navigate the difficult, confusing world of flying with a wheelchair, according to the CBC.

“I did not feel safe,” said Di Virgilio, who was born with a mobility disability that affects her muscles and lungs, and has left her chained to a ventilator and unable to sit up on her own.

“It just felt like people weren’t trained properly,” she said toward the end of her round-trip journey from Toronto to Charlottetown. “People didn’t really know what they were doing.”

The litany of problems Di Virgilio encountered stemmed mostly from a lack of preparedness by the airline and its staff — and led to egregious complications like her ventilator being disconnected and having a lift fall on her head during the trip.

The Marketplace documentary also illuminated accessibility issues throughout Canada’s transit systems, including using ride-share apps with a service animal or navigating public transportation with a disability, according to the CBC.

Such issues are overwhelmingly common, according to Jeff Preston, associate professor of disability studies at King’s University College in Ontario.

“This moment of remembering that you don’t have the same rights or the same access as other Canadians, that you are asked to fundamentally live a lesser life because of your difference, that it’s your responsibility to fit within this broken system as opposed to the system saying we need to do fundamentally better,” Preston, who himself uses a power wheelchair, told the CBC after watching their footage.

The main problem is that wheelchair users must be separated from their wheelchairs during flights so they can be seated in airplane seats, Di Virgilio told the network.

Airlines are supposed to train their staff to transfer people in wheelchairs, but Di Virgilio doesn’t always trust the training — as evidenced by a shocking incident at Charlottetown Airport where five people moved her by hand and knocked her ventilator lose several times.

Without the tube, Di Virgilio has only a few breaths before her breathing gets shallow.

Adding insult to injury, the lift they were using then tilted over and struck her in the head.

“I was not confident, and I did not feel safe,” Di Virgilio said afterward. “To say the word terrifying just doesn’t fully [capture] how you feel,” she reflected a few days after returning home. “It was just such an overwhelming experience.… I just kind of shut down from there.”

Air Canada wouldn’t comment on Di Virgilio’s case, but said they had since reached out to her to apologize.

“The vast, vast majority of customers with mobility needs travelled without issue and in those relatively rare instances where barriers were encountered, we moved quickly to address concerns,” the airline said in a statement.

Preston, the professor, said Air Canada and the Canadian Transportation Agency need to get their acts together when it comes to handling accessibility.

“Ultimately, when somebody’s rights are being violated, when someone is fundamentally treated as a lesser-than person, I think we all have a responsibility to intervene,” he told the station.

“We need to do a much better job at ensuring that what is on paper is actually being enacted in the real world. Because that gap, in my experience, can be massive.”