An Adelaide disability advocate says he felt 'embarrassed' and 'shocked' during a trip to the Gold Coast with Virgin Australia.
A disability advocate says he was treated poorly by cabin crew and ground staff while travelling with Virgin Australia last week.Virgin Australia says crew 'followed procedure' but it has reached out to Mr Hryhorec to apologise.
Mr Hryhorec said he often faced challenges when boarding planes, but his most recent experience left him reeling. "When I went to sit on the window seat, the cabin crew member quite rudely said to me, 'You can't sit there, that seat is for the dog', and I was quite shocked at the tone they spoke to me," he said.
Mr Hryhorec explained to staff that he could not handle his service dog properly without his own chair.A disability passenger lift was later used to transport Mr Hryhorec and his service dog into his wheelchair."My wheelchair is quite small and compact, it weighs 9.5 kilograms and is actually smaller than the airport chairs."
"There should be absolutely no reason why a manual wheelchair cannot be pushed up a compliant ramp to the door of an airplane, so these things need to be fixed so other people don't go through the same experiences.""We have investigated the complaint and reached out to the guest, providing information about our policies," the spokesperson said.
Earlier this year, Australia's former disability discrimination commissioner Graeme Innes settled a dispute with Adelaide Airport over a "humiliating and distressing"Travel Health and Safety'Blow on top of blow' for family of truck driver killed in triple-fatal crash at Maryborough
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