A man has shared the shocking moment he claims he was \u201ckicked off\u201d a Virgin Australia flight \u2013 all because of his wheelchair. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
The 41-year-old explained that he had boarded the plane as usual with his service dog and his SmartDrive battery \u2013 a 6kg device that clips onto the back of a wheelchair to help power it forward. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
After a \u201cheated\u201d interaction with staff members, Shane said he was offloaded from the plane \u201cin front of everyone\u201d \u2013 an incident that left him feeling \u201cshocked, angry and upset\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cI travel with a SmartDrive battery which helps me be independent and I\u2019ve used it for over 15 years,\u201d the disability advocate told news.com.au. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve flown more than 300 times with it and never had an issue. But all of a sudden they\u2019ve implemented a new rule where the battery needs to go under your seat.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only seat that I can sit in, because I travel with a service dog, is the middle seat and then she takes the window.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was no negotiation, that was where they put me, but there was no space to put a SmartDrive at all. <\/p>\n
\u201cInstead of them going \u2018oh the problem is the plane and where we\u2019ve put him\u2019 they just said I have to put it there.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole thing was so embarrassing.\u201d <\/p>\n
A spokesperson for Virgin Australia told news.com.au the airline was reviewing the incident and said that they remained \u201ccommitted to providing an accessible and inclusive travel experience\u201d for all their guests.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile the safety of our guests and crew is always our highest priority, we are reviewing the circumstances of yesterday\u2019s 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,\u201d they said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Hryhorec then filmed himself being offloaded from the flight, describing it as \u201cmortifying\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey get on the PA while I\u2019m getting dragged off the plane and said they were sorry for the inconvenience caused, we\u2019re offloading a passenger, thank you all so much,\u201d he recalled. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I thought, well I\u2019m glad that they\u2019re being apologised to. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was so embarrassing having 200 passengers watch me getting dragged off a plane,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt made me feel so small and so degraded. It is not any way you should treat a human being, ever.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was so upset about the whole experience. This is a guide on how you should never ever treat people with disabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Hryhorec said the whole incident was \u201cso upsetting\u201d and he claims he is yet to receive any sort of apology from the airline.<\/p>\n
\u201cVirgin Australia have told me that they are looking into the incident but so far, not one apology has been given,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI 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. <\/p>\n
\u201cI genuinely feel that Virgin Australia does not care about people with disabilities and the proof is in that video.\u201d<\/p>\n
The clip has quickly gone viral, racking up over 2 million views in less than a day \u2013 with many sharing their shock over the incident.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m glad you posted it publicly and I\u2019m sorry you have to do that to bring awareness,\u201d one person wrote. <\/p>\n
However, another said they were \u201cconfused\u201d by the situation. <\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t expect to travel on an airline with my wheelchair batteries by my feet,\u201d they commented.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would follow airline rules and pay for extra luggage. Surely you don\u2019t expect to board an aircraft with what is essentially unsecured items.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man has shared the shocking moment he claims he was \u201ckicked off\u201d a Virgin Australia flight \u2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74539,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[58736,108278,108250,108287,108261,41086,108275,108271,108289,108277,60167,108257,37420,108263,43092,37348,108295,85895,65386,108283,108291,108253,108281,50625,99730,98881,42149,395,31415,108270,108294,108254,78860,108249,47467,42985,64767,41009,5800,22,21,8324,108267,108256,38110,37081,10635,50460,38160,74276,52939,37707,108293,108260,108280,108265,50312,108274,33821,44590,37045,108290,108279,39717,108246,37007,108285,108264,108284,43754,108252,9859,106696,99235,82299,108286,67242,58242,7350,9875,51994,1407,108262,108276,26169,247,51374,56888,51030,42022,108269,38099,60845,108259,39545,41602,44304,47838,36531,108288,108258,108272,108268,108292,59741,43826,108273,64606,46891,108282,43761,108251,108248,53615,70401,108255,108247,10234,18315,40605,108266],"class_list":["post-74538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-s-experience","tag-s-virgin-australia-clip","tag-mortifying","tag-2-million-views","tag-200-passengers","tag-41086","tag-a-heated-interaction","tag-a-6kg-device","tag-a-back-alleyway","tag-a-devastating-swimming-accident","tag-a-guide","tag-a-human-being","tag-a-man","tag-a-new-rule","tag-a-passenger","tag-a-plane","tag-a-quadriplegic-man","tag-a-ramp","tag-a-roller-door","tag-a-service-dog","tag-a-shocked-passenger","tag-a-smartdrive","tag-a-smartdrive-battery","tag-a-spokesperson","tag-a-virgin-australia-flight","tag-a-virgin-flight","tag-a-wheelchair","tag-adelaide","tag-advance","tag-airline-rules","tag-all-their-guests","tag-an-accessible-and-inclusive-travel-experience","tag-an-aircraft","tag-an-airline","tag-an-incident","tag-an-issue","tag-any-sort","tag-any-way","tag-apology","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-awareness","tag-disabilities","tag-extra-luggage","tag-front","tag-guests","tag-health-minister-mark-butler","tag-his-decision","tag-his-experience","tag-his-hometown","tag-his-office","tag-his-seat","tag-his-service-dog","tag-his-smartdrive","tag-his-smartdrive-battery","tag-his-wheelchair","tag-items","tag-less-than-a-day","tag-man","tag-millions","tag-monday","tag-more-than-300-times","tag-mr-hryhorec","tag-my-feet","tag-my-wheelchair-batteries","tag-news-com-au","tag-no-negotiation","tag-no-space","tag-not-one-apology","tag-one-person","tag-one-unbelievable-reason","tag-opportunities","tag-our-guests","tag-our-guests-and-crew","tag-our-highest-priority","tag-our-interaction","tag-our-teams","tag-over-15-years","tag-people","tag-power","tag-shane","tag-shane-hryhorec","tag-similar-circumstances","tag-specific-seating-or-stowage-requirements","tag-staff-members","tag-sydney","tag-that-video","tag-the-41-year-old","tag-the-airline","tag-the-back","tag-the-battery","tag-the-circumstances","tag-the-clip","tag-the-disability-advocate","tag-the-fact","tag-the-flight","tag-the-footage","tag-the-front","tag-the-incident","tag-the-inconvenience","tag-the-layout","tag-the-middle-seat","tag-the-only-seat","tag-the-pa","tag-the-plane","tag-the-problem","tag-the-proof","tag-the-row","tag-the-safety","tag-the-shocking-moment","tag-the-situation","tag-the-whole-experience","tag-the-whole-incident","tag-the-whole-thing","tag-the-window","tag-their-shock","tag-this-unfortunate-outcome","tag-viral","tag-virgin-australia","tag-yesterday","tag-your-seat"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}