An Ontario man is struggling to get around in Chile after Air Canada forgot his customized wheelchair in Toronto.
“Jim can’t get around without the wheelchair,” his stepdaughter Wendy Elliott told CTV National News from Toronto. “I think it’s just unacceptable.
Jim Hamilton and Elliott’s mother, Cathy Hamilton, left Toronto late Sunday for Santiago, Chile, for a month-long trip that includes a 16-day cruise. Keen travelers, the couple were looking forward to their first vacation since Hamilton suffered a major stroke in May 2021 that left him completely paralyzed on his left side. Elliott says the stroke “turned their whole world upside down in an instant.”
“My mother had put a lot of care and preparation into this trip,” Elliott explained. “She was actually working with someone who runs a travel agency that specializes in people with accessibility needs. So she really went out of her way to make sure everything went smoothly.”
Hamilton was wheeled right to the plane’s door in his wheelchair, which then had to be checked, as when large carry-ons are placed in the hold just before a flight. But when the couple arrived in Santiago on Monday morning after a 10-and-a-half-hour flight, they learned the wheelchair was still in Toronto.
“We were the last people to get off the plane,” Kathy Hamilton told CTV National News from Chile. “And when I walked out that door and his chair was gone, you have no idea … I mean, those are his legs.”
Elliot was shocked to hear what had happened.
“It’s mind-blowing to be completely honest,” Elliott added. “I don’t understand how when it’s sitting right outside the door of the plane and there’s a baggage tag on it, it’s just left there.” I just don’t understand how this happened.”
The couple traveled from Santiago to Vina del Mar, more than 120 kilometers by car, from where their cruise departs on Friday. Elliott says her mother struggled to help Hamilton get in and out of the “awkward” temporary wheelchair they were given at the airport when they arrived. Costing more than $5,000, Hamilton’s wheelchair is customized for his height, weight and specific mobility needs.
“He needs this chair to get out of bed in the morning, to work throughout the day, to go to the bathroom, to take a shower, to go back to bed at night – he needs it for everything,” Kathy Hamilton said. “All I want is his chair. I don’t even want rent. I want his chair because no hire will have all the specs that his chair had.”
Without it, she says, “it would ruin the whole cruise.”
Air Canada has promised that Hamilton’s wheelchair will be on a flight Tuesday night that will arrive in Santiago on Wednesday morning. Elliott hopes the airline can deliver her stepfather’s wheelchair in time.
“So the cruise ship leaves on Friday, which doesn’t give them much time to get that wheelchair from Toronto to Santiago and then from Santiago to Vina del Mar to them,” she said. “I don’t know if it’s his chair. I don’t know if it’s damaged. I don’t know if he will be able to take off, if the flight will arrive on time. I’m not sure.”
This isn’t the first time Air Canada has had trouble delivering a wheelchair. In September 2022, a Toronto woman’s motorized wheelchair was severely damaged on a flight to Israel, and in late 2021, a Toronto man’s wheelchair was shipped from Greece to Germany instead of Canada, only to arrive damaged in Toronto five days later. A British Columbia woman was also forced off a plane in July 2022 after Air Canada said her motorized wheelchair was too big to fit in the cargo hold. Meanwhile, passengers have reported waiting weeks or more for lost luggage, including luggage containing cancer drugs. Similar problems have been reported with other airlines in Canada, such as WestJet.
Maayan Ziv is a Toronto entrepreneur and disability activist whose $30,000 wheelchair was damaged by Air Canada in September while she was traveling to Tel Aviv for an accessibility conference. Broken beyond repair, replacement only arrived yesterday.
“I was blocked and it took months before a resolution was actually reached,” Ziv told CTV National News on Tuesday. “The reality is that today, people with disabilities and our mobility devices are treated like baggage. There is no difference between someone losing a suitcase and someone’s health, mobility and independence being literally taken away from them. And that’s what happens when an airline is so careless and loses or breaks a wheelchair or other mobility aid.”
Ziv says an average of 29 mobility devices are damaged or lost by airlines every day.
“This happens every day to people everywhere and nothing has been done to prevent it from happening again,” she said. “The approach of the airlines is to pay the damages afterwards and there is no recognition of the impact that is having on people’s lives. It’s devastating.”
In a statement to CTV National News, Air Canada confirmed that Hamilton’s wheelchair will be flown to Chile on Tuesday night.
“We fully appreciate the importance of mobility devices to their customers and have processes in place to ensure they travel safely with their owners and are reviewing why this did not happen in this case,” a spokesman said. “We are contacting the customer directly to apologize and address their concerns and, as part of that process, we immediately offered the customer a goodwill gesture of $300.”
For Elliott, $300 is no consolation for the loss of a primary means of transportation.
“I’m sorry, but for Air Canada to give my mom that $300 and just send her on her way, that’s just not acceptable,” she said. “It’s not part of the luggage. It’s not an optional accessory for him. It’s not part of the sports equipment. He requires it for his mobility.”
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