Paralympic skier Caleb Brousseau says leaving Cuba meant crawling to plane seat

Paralympic skier Caleb Brousseau says leaving Cuba meant crawling to
plane seat

Caleb Brousseau complains Sunwing didn't provide an aisle wheelchair;
airline disputes his story, saying it is "ready and happy to
accommodate" disabled passengers.
By: Wendy Gillis News reporter, Published on Fri Mar 29 2013

As a member of Canada's Paralympic alpine ski team, Caleb Brousseau, a
24-year-old paralyzed from the waist down, has travelled extensively and
never encountered a serious mobility problem while flying.

But on a recent trip to Cuba, he says, Toronto-based Sunwing Airlines
did not provide him with the necessary equipment to enter or exit the
plane in a timely manner, prompting him to crawl the distance between
the airplane door and his seat.

Sunwing, however, has concluded after an initial investigation that
employees were in the process of retrieving the equipment, and says
Brousseau's version of events differs significantly from their own.

The dispute involves Brousseau's arrival and departure from Varadero. He
alleges that Sunwing failed to supply a narrow specialty wheelchair —
used to carry a passenger between the door and seat — within a
reasonable period of time.

The trip from Varadero to Toronto on Tuesday was particularly bad, he
said, because he was left waiting for the chair, known as a boarding or
aisle chair, at the door of the plane for 15 minutes — all the while
blocking off the entrance and causing a passenger bottleneck.

He and his girlfriend, Andrea Dziewior, say that when they told a flight
attendant Brousseau needed the chair, they were told there wasn't one in
the area.

According to Brousseau, the attendant then proceeded to speak to a
nearby airport employee in another language, and was not taking any
visible action to get it or providing them with updates about the
chair's whereabouts.

Feeling frustrated, ignored and hopeless about the prospect of getting a
chair — and worried about causing a delay for others — Brousseau decided
to crawl the short distance to his seat in the second row.

"They weren't asking me to move to the side, they weren't doing anything
like that, or going and getting it," Brousseau said in an interview with
the Star from his home in Whistler, B.C. " 'They obviously want me to
board the plane,' is what went through my head."

Sunwing president Mark Williams said that while the airline would
continue to investigate, it has found that Brousseau's version is "not
consistent with what has been reported in our account of the situation."

"We were ready and would have been happy to accommodate this passenger's
needs in Varadero," he said.

Williams said the boarding chairs Brousseau required are readily
available at that airport. If one is not immediately available, it
wouldn't take more than two or three minutes to get one, he said.

The chairs can also be brought on planes upon a passenger's request;
Brousseau said he did not ask for the chair to be brought on board.

In the case of the flight from Varadero to Toronto, the airline
acknowledges that there wasn't a boarding chair waiting for Brousseau
right away, but that the male flight attendant was in the process of
getting one.

Brousseau also claims he had to crawl to an airport-owned wheelchair on
the flight from Toronto to Varadero because no boarding chair was available.

One male employee offered to carry him off the plane, Brousseau said —
an offer he refused because he could be seriously injured in a fall.

Sunwing contests whether Brousseau had to crawl on the Toronto to
Varadero flight, because there is no indication of a problem in the
flight record.

"We even called the in-charge flight attendant because there was nothing
in the report, and she said if someone had had an issue getting off the
aircraft and had to crawl off, it would have absolutely been in her
report," he said.

On the Varadero-Toronto flight, Dziewior snapped a photo of Brousseau
while he was crawling so she would have evidence, and alleges the flight
attendant tried to stop her from taking it.

Williams said it wasn't clear from the report if the airline was
investigating whether the flight attendant attempted to stop Dziewior
from taking a photo.

In general, Williams said, Sunwing is well equipped to meet the needs of
passengers with mobility issues, and does so on a regular basis.

Staff is trained in aiding all passengers, including those with mobility
issues, when they are hired and at during annual retraining, Williams said.

Brousseau was also upset that, when leaving Varadero, he was asked to
leave his wheelchair at the check-in, despite the fact that airlines
usually wait until boarding to take it, so passengers can use them
inside the terminal.

Brousseau said he accepted that, but was frustrated when there was a
long delay to get an airport wheelchair; Dziewior said she finally found
one herself because she and Brousseau were concerned about missing the
flight.

Williams said every Cuban airport has a policy to take wheelchairs at
check-in, because the government wants to inspect each chair before it
is loaded on the aircraft.

"It's certainly possible there might have been a wait to get a
wheelchair. I can't say there wasn't," Williams said.

Pat Danforth, who leads the transportation committee for the Council of
Canadians with Disabilities, said special boarding chairs have become a
common service on planes and getting one shouldn't have been a problem.

She uses a wheelchair and has not encountered an issue accessing the
chair while travelling.

"But it just has to happen to you once to make you a lot more hesitant
to travel," Danforth said.

According to the Canadian Transportation Agency, the federal air
transportation regulations that include rules about accessibility apply
to domestic travel only, meaning the airline is not legally obligated to
provide the chair.

"However, carriers are expected to apply the spirit of those regulations
to international travel," said Chantal Laflamme, an agency spokesperson.

Passengers on an international flight can still complain to the agency,
and it would investigate.

Brousseau said he plans to launch a formal complaint.

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2013/03/29/paralympic_skier_caleb_brousseau_says_leaving_cuba_meant_crawling_to_plane_seat.html