A Richmond woman says she was humiliated by WestJet flight attendants who wheeled her off a plane yesterday after telling her she couldn’t fly without an attendant.
Brenda Dixon was set to fly to Hamilton Tuesday morning by herself on WestJet, something she has done for a couple of years on her own.
She does depend on a wheelchair and has a genetic neuromuscular disorder but did not think flying on her own this time would be an issue.
A caregiver helped Dixon get to the airport and then she got to the gate and on to the plane on her own.
She was waiting for it to take off when she said two flight attendants approached her and asked the two people beside her to move so that they could talk to her.
“They said ‘ma’am I’m sorry, you’re going to have to get off the plane,” said Dixon. “We’re going to have to take you off the plane because we don’t feel comfortable with you going there without an attendant to lift you’.”
“And I’m going ‘lift me? No one’s ever had to lift me’.”
Dixon was taken off the plane and cancelled her entire trip.
WestJet refunded her ticket and gave her a $150 voucher for future use.
WestJet says because Dixon signed up for the ‘One Person, One Fare’ program, which is a program that allows an attendant to fly free of charge, by doing that Dixon was informing the company that she would always fly with an attendant.
Therefore, they say she should not have been allowed to fly without one.
When asked why Dixon was able to make the booking in the first place and get on the plane, WestJet says they do not know how that happened. They apologize to her and will take steps to try to prevent it from happening again.
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