Wheelchair User 'Terrified' While Being Carried Off Plane

A wheelchair user said she was “distraught and absolutely terrified” after being carried off a plane on a broken aisle chair at Liberia Guanacaste Airport in Costa Rica earlier this month.

Canadian travel content creator Tori Hunter, also known as Victoria Lacey, shared a video of her being carried off an Air Canada flight on Global Accessibility Awareness Day to shed light on the issues faced by wheelchair users.

Lacey said airport staff at Liberia Guanacaste Airport carried her off the plane in a broken aisle chair with no armrests or straps.

“You can see from my face how distraught and absolutely terrified I was,” Lacey said. “I was never informed that this would be how I would have to disembark the plane, and it never crossed my mind given that this airport DOES use jet bridges. In fact, all of the other planes around us were pulled up to them.”

In a later update, Lacey said the situation was dangerous for both herself and the crew, who “should have never been put in that position to have to carry me down the stairs.”

Air Canada said that the airport in Costa Rica was “not able to make an aircraft bridge available” for the flight and that they would be reviewing airport procedures, including for smaller foreign stations, according to media reports. Credit: Tori Hunter via Storyful