Air Canada has come under increasing fire in recent months – with the beleaguered airline now accused of disconnecting a disabled woman’s ventilator on a flight.
Bosses at the privately-owned airline were hauled in front of the Canadian federal government this week to answer questions on a raft of reports of poor treatment of disabled passengers.
Alessia Di Virgilio, a disabled woman who uses a wheelchair to move and a ventilator to breathe, was filmed having her breathing device disconnected on an Air Canada trip in an undercover CBC report. A lift was also dropped on her head by staff at the firm, whose CEO was paid $9 million USD in 2022.
Another wheelchair user, Rodney Hodgins, was forced to drag himself off an Air Canada flight over a mix-up. And Harish Pant, 83, died following a flight after suffering medical distress. His daughter claims Air Canada to refuse to divert, then fly on for nine hours to their intended destination.
After three separate recent incidents – including the case of Hodgins – Air Canada admitted it had violated Canadian disability regulations – Canada’s minister of transport, Pablo Rodriguez, said the airline must ‘do better’.
He wrote on X: ‘All Canadians must be treated with dignity and respect. Full stop.’
And it isn’t just disabled flyers who are complaining with hundreds of passengers – including a movie star – slamming Air Canada over its terrible service.
Air Canada told DailyMail.com it is taking drastic action to improve the experience of disabled flyers and highlighted multiple customer service awards it has recently won.
Here, DailyMail.com catalogs some of the airline’s most shameful recent incidents…
Staff disconnected severely-disabled woman’s ventilator
Alessia Di Virgilio was filmed by an undercover reporter having her ventilator repeatedly disconnected and a lift dropped on her head by staff during an Air Canada flight
A Toronto woman who uses a power wheelchair says she had her ventilator disconnected and a lift fall on her head while Air Canada staff struggled to move her on to the plane.
Alessia Di Virgilio told CBC that she ‘did not feel safe’ during her trips with Air Canada from Toronto to Charlottetown.
Hidden cameras caught poorly trained staff struggling to move Di Virgilio leading to her ventilator coming detached multiple times.
Di Virgilio said she can only manage a few breaths without her ventilator before her breathing becomes shallow.
She told CBC she felt ‘terrified’ during the final transfer in Toronto when staff told her they hadn’t used the equipment to move her ‘in probably seven years’ and seemed to be working by trial and error.
Then she said the lift they were using tipped over and ‘hit me in the head’ – she added: ‘It was just such an overwhelming experience.… I just kind of shut down from there.’
Air Canada said in a statement to CBC: ‘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.’
Refused to divert a plane for a sick passenger who then died
Harish Pant, 83, died after he developed severe medical issues on an Air Canada flight and staff allegedly refused to divert the plane to land early.
Pant and his family had left Delhi on a flight in September – but seven hours in, Pant woke up and said he was having severe chest pain.
Over the next few hours, he developed back pain, vomiting, loss of bowel control and the ability to stand.
His daughter Shanu Pande said she immediately alerted cabin crew and pleaded with them to divert the plane so he could receive medical attention.
Harish Pant, pictured, suffered a medical emergency on an Air Canada flight from Delhi to Canada in September. His daughter says the airline flew on for nine hours and refused to divert, with Pant dying shortly after the jet landed
Pant is pictured with daughter Shanu Pande. Air Canada extended its sympathies to Pant’s family – but rejected any suggestion that it shoulders any of the blame for his death
She told Go Public: ‘He was deteriorating in front of my eyes.’
But she says staff decided his condition was ‘not life-threatening’ and refused to divert the flight.
Instead they landed as scheduled nine hours later in Canada. Paramedics were waiting to meet the plane, but Pant died while they were treating him.
His daughter believes that if Air Canada had diverted the flight, he would still be alive. She said: ‘He was at the mercy of the pilot and Air Canada people. They were inhumane and callous.
The family are pursuing a lawsuit against Air Canada.
In an email to Go Public, Air Canada spokesperson Peter Fitzpatrick wrote that Air Canada extends its deepest sympathies to Pant’s family, but also ‘categorically rejects any assertions that it was responsible for the customer’s death.’
Disabled man forced to drag his body up the aisle to get off plane
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.
Hodgins 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
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 incident was investigated by Canadian Transportation Agency and this week the airline said it violated Canadian disability regulations in his case.
In a written apology to the Hodgins, Air Canada acknowledged the experience was ‘very inconvenient and humiliating’ and offered Rodney and his wife a $1,000 flight voucher each.
Disabled man seriously injured after staff dropped him on floor
A stand-up comedian with cerebral palsy was left bed-ridden for three days after airline staff dropped him on the floor while taking him off the plane.
Ryan Lachance, 44, usually uses an eagle lift to move him from his seat, but he says in early May, Air Canada ground crew insisted they could transfer him without assistance from the lift, and tried to hoist him themselves onto an aisle chair.
He told CBC: ‘It was a massive struggle to get me out of the seat. I travel with a sling underneath me to make it easier for people to pick me up. They kept pulling that and it was hurting my body, bruising my back and my hip really bad.’
He was eventually yanked off the chair and landed hard on the floor, the incident was caught on video.
Comedian Ryan Lachance, 44, was left badly-injured after Air Canada staff dropped him while taking him off a plane, after insisting they could do so manually, instead of using a lifting device
His care assistant said: ‘It was painful to watch, and it was painful for Ryan to experience.
‘The one guy that was holding him up on his shoulders did not have his shoulders [properly], and the guy who had his legs pulled, and Ryan just flew off the seat and landed on his butt.
It took over an hour and a half for Lachance to get off the flight and Lachance said he was left bedridden for three days.
After filing a formal complaint, Lachance told CBC he was offered $500 in flight credits.
Air Canada told CBC News: ‘This customer did not receive the level of service we normally provide.’
Staff branded the ‘worst of humanity’ by Marvel star
Canadian actor Simu Liu described Air Canada staff as the ‘the best and worst of humanity’ in March.
Posting on Instagram, he added: ‘The worst are completely apathetic and use the crowds and punching bags.’
Liu is known for portraying Shang-Chi in the 2021 Marvel film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
Liu took to Instagram to express his disappointment with Air Canada
An Air Canada plane takes off from Houston airport in October 2023. The airline has come under increasing fire for its treatment of disabled passengers and general customer service in recent months
He didn’t give any specific examples, saying ‘no complaints, nothing to take up’ but said some of the staff had been ‘unpleasant’ and ‘unprofessional’.
He added: ‘The good employees are truly great and the bad ones … well, they’re just some of the most unpleasant and miserable unprofessional human beings on the face of the earth.’
Appalling online reviews from unhappy customers
Michael Rousseau, CEO of Air Canada, was highly-criticized by the public and members of the country’s government after he admitted he did not speak French
As of this week, Air Canada scores just 4/10 from 2,309 reviews on airline quality comparison site, Skytrax, and 1.4 on Trustpilot from 593 reviews.
One of the most recent verified reviews on Skytrax for Air Canada, from Meaghan Jeffrey, rated the airline just 1/10 – writing: ‘I was so frustrated that I cried’.
Other reviews detail lost bags, cancelled flights and rude staff.
Another verified review from October read: ‘My experience with Air Canada was nothing short of a complete disaster. I wouldn’t wish this airline on my worst enemy.
‘It was as if Air Canada had a personal vendetta against punctuality.’
The company made headlines in April this year when it was revealed CEO Michael Rousseau was paid $12.38 million CAD (roughly $9 million USD) in 2022 — a 233-per-cent increase compared to the previous year.
Mr Rosseau told DailyMail.com: ‘Air Canada recognizes the challenges customers with disabilities encounter when they fly and accepts its responsibility to provide convenient and consistent service so that flying with us becomes easier.
‘Sometimes we do not meet this commitment, for which we offer a sincere apology. As our customers with disabilities tell us, the most important thing is that we continuously improve in the future.
‘We are listening to them and today we are committing to do better and demonstrating that commitment with concrete actions.’
The company announced several measures including ‘improving boarding and seating, better customer communications, new processes to prevent delays or damage to mobility devices, more training and an investment in equipment such as lifts’.