A young disabled woman in Abbotsford, British Columbia, claims she experienced a mental breakdown on a recent Air Canada flight.
Courtney Kujava, 24, uses a motorized wheelchair that the airline said was too large to fit in the cargo hold.
On Sunday, Kujawa left Vancouver International Airport for Denver, Colorado, for a conference for people who also have the same rare genetic skin disease called recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa.
“It’s a place where I don’t feel different; I feel so different when I’m at home. So it was very important for me to come see my old friends and meet new ones,” she told CTV News.
Kujava was traveling with his sister and a friend. Before the flight, she had given the travel agent the dimensions of the wheelchair and requested that the trio sit together in the front. Her hands are amputated and she needs the help of relatives.
“I need help with almost everything, like walking, putting on a seat belt, giving a drink or if I needed medication,” she explained.
But when they reached the airport, they learned that their seats were separated. Eventually, an agent was able to find places for Kuyawa to sit with his friend.
Just as they were getting ready for take off, the flight attendant told them the wheelchair wouldn’t fit even after they tried to remove the headrest.
Kujawa said it came as a shock to her, as she had flown nearly a dozen times in the same wheelchair and never had any problems.
“It was humiliating for me to have to leave,” she said.
They waited several hours for the next flight, which would be a larger plane.
But despite their optimism, they were told again that the wheelchair was too big and needed to be taken apart.
“We didn’t have the tools and so we were told that next time we should get our hex key or wrench,” she said.
With the help of a mechanic, they spent about 90 minutes dismantling the wheelchair, delaying the flight for everyone on board.
“I felt like I messed up a lot of people’s flights and connecting flights and all that stuff. And I just felt really bad about everything. I feel that disabled people should not have to worry about such things. There is enough going on that we can just not worry about the flying process,” she said.
The trio eventually arrived in Denver, albeit nine hours later than expected.
Gabor Lukacs, founder of Air Passenger Rights, said Kujawa should never have been asked to carry her own tools.
“The passenger may be asked to provide a manual for disassembly and assembly and may be asked to arrive earlier for check-in or be earlier at the boarding gate, but these are the only obligations of the passenger,” he said.
Lukacs said airlines are required to prioritize mobility aids over baggage and cargo.
“The bottom line is that these are discriminatory issues: not transporting a person because of their disability,” he said.
He said the only exception is if the cargo door is too small.
Air Canada would not comment on the specifics of Kujawa’s experience or say whether the door was too small, but defended its process for those traveling in wheelchairs.
“We have well-established procedures for customers requiring assistance and make every effort to assist customers traveling in a wheelchair,” the company wrote in an emailed statement.
He said there is a dedicated Air Canada medical assistance desk that passengers must call at least 48 hours before departure to provide the dimensions and battery type information of their mobility aid.
He said this was to ensure the wheelchair could fit through the plane’s cargo door.
“Air Canada will make every effort to accommodate passengers and their means of transportation and, if necessary, we will remove any cargo or baggage to make room for the means of transportation,” the statement said.
Kujawa’s mother said they called the special hotline, which they had to wait an hour for, and she referred them to the website.
The dimensions of the wheelchair were given to the airline through their travel agent.
“They knew they were getting someone with a mobility issue. They had a mobility aid dimension, so just do the right thing,” Lukacs said, adding that the airline should have booked them on another flight in advance or had a team ready to disassemble and reassemble the wheelchair.
Kujawa will return to Abbotsford next week and isn’t sure if she wants to fly Air Canada again if it means taking the wheelchair apart.
The airline told CTV News it would contact Kujawa.
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