A man has shared the shocking moment he claims he was “kicked off” a Virgin Australia flight – all because of his wheelchair.
Shane Hryhorec, who uses a wheelchair after suffering a devastating swimming accident in 2007, was due to fly from his hometown of Adelaide to Sydney on Monday, on a Virgin Australia flight.
The 41-year-old explained that he had boarded the plane as usual with his service dog and his SmartDrive battery – a 6kg device that clips onto the back of a wheelchair to help power it forward.
However once in his seat, he realised that due to the layout of the row, there was nowhere safe for him to store his SmartDrive without it rolling around and potentially injuring his service dog, Whitney.
After a “heated” interaction with staff members, Shane said he was offloaded from the plane “in front of everyone” – an incident that left him feeling “shocked, angry and upset”.
“I travel with a SmartDrive battery which helps me be independent and I’ve used it for over 15 years,” the disability advocate told news.com.au.
“I’ve flown more than 300 times with it and never had an issue. But all of a sudden they’ve implemented a new rule where the battery needs to go under your seat.
“The only seat that I can sit in, because I travel with a service dog, is the middle seat and then she takes the window.
“There was no negotiation, that was where they put me, but there was no space to put a SmartDrive at all.
“Instead of them going ‘oh the problem is the plane and where we’ve put him’ they just said I have to put it there.
“The whole thing was so embarrassing.”
A spokesperson for Virgin Australia told news.com.au the airline was reviewing the incident and said that they remained “committed to providing an accessible and inclusive travel experience” for all their guests.
“While the safety of our guests and crew is always our highest priority, we are reviewing the circumstances of yesterday’s experience to understand whether there are opportunities to better identify specific seating or stowage requirements in advance and how our teams can support guests in similar circumstances,” they said.
“We have reached out to Mr Hryhorec to find out more about his experience and we are reviewing the circumstances that led to this unfortunate outcome for one of our guests.”
Mr Hryhorec then filmed himself being offloaded from the flight, describing it as “mortifying”.
“They get on the PA while I’m getting dragged off the plane and said they were sorry for the inconvenience caused, we’re offloading a passenger, thank you all so much,” he recalled.
“And I thought, well I’m glad that they’re being apologised to.
“It was so embarrassing having 200 passengers watch me getting dragged off a plane,” he added.
“It made me feel so small and so degraded. It is not any way you should treat a human being, ever.
“I was so upset about the whole experience. This is a guide on how you should never ever treat people with disabilities.”
Mr Hryhorec said the whole incident was “so upsetting” and he claims he is yet to receive any sort of apology from the airline.
“Virgin Australia have told me that they are looking into the incident but so far, not one apology has been given,” he said.
“I think it is absolutely disgusting. And the fact that after they realised I was recording, asked me to delete the footage makes it quite clear they do not want people to see our interaction.
“I genuinely feel that Virgin Australia does not care about people with disabilities and the proof is in that video.”
The clip has quickly gone viral, racking up over 2 million views in less than a day – with many sharing their shock over the incident.
“I’m glad you posted it publicly and I’m sorry you have to do that to bring awareness,” one person wrote.
However, another said they were “confused” by the situation.
“I don’t expect to travel on an airline with my wheelchair batteries by my feet,” they commented.
“I would follow airline rules and pay for extra luggage. Surely you don’t expect to board an aircraft with what is essentially unsecured items.”