Wheelchair user Rodney Hodgins was on a flight from Vancouver to Las Vegas when, on arrival, mobility assistance staff didn’t arrive to help him off the plane. Hodgins – who is unable to walk – says he was pressured to disembark the plane on foot. The airline has since apologized.
For most people, arriving for a trip to Las Vegas brings excitement, mixed with a little trepidation. But for Rodney Hodgins, who traveled in August, his flight into the city was an experience so traumatic, he says, that it ruined the rest of his trip. Hodgins, a wheelchair user, says that he had to drag himself along the aisle, helped by his wife, when mobility assistance staff from the airport didn’t turn up to assist him.
I can’t really move my legs so my wife had to go on the floor and help me .” Hodgins supported himself by holding onto seats on either side of the aisle as his wife moved his legs. With her on the floor and him dragging himself with his arms, they managed to go the whole 12 rows. But when they reached the galley area ahead of the front row, there was nothing more for him to hold onto – and still no sign of any assistance staff.