Porter says ‘miscommunication’ between pilot and flight attendant led to the incident.
Georgina Villeneuve says she still feels humiliated as she remembers being taken off a Porter jet last month.
She was threatened by a flight attendant and berated by another passenger, all while her 20-pound assistance dog slept at her feet.
“For a week, I cried nonstop…” “I don’t like creating scenes,” the Edmonton woman told Go Public.
Villeneuve lost most of her hearing a few years ago due to a viral infection. She claims she cannot hear out of her right ear and has less than 15% hearing in her left, therefore she primarily communicates by reading lips.
She relies on Maggie, her service dog, to alert her to potential threats or sounds. Maggie also helps Villeneuve with her balance issues, which are caused by her hearing loss.
However, as a Porter plane bound for Edmonton waited in line to taxi down a Toronto runway in September, a flight attendant ordered Villeneuve to place her service dog under the seat in front of her, which was a direct violation of both Porter and Canadian Transportation Agency rules because it could injure the animal and interfere with the dog’s ability to assist its disabled owner.
An Alberta woman who is deaf says she was berated, threatened and removed from a Porter Airlines flight last month, over a misunderstanding about her service dog.
“She said to me … ‘It’s like this. That dog goes under the seat or we’re turning the plane around … and we’re going to remove you from the flight.’”
All the while, Villeneuve says an irate passenger seated in the row ahead was on a tirade, angry about a possible flight interruption.
“He keeps yelling and screaming and telling us we’re inconsiderate and we’re losers,” Villeneuve said. “He says, ‘Just take the damn dog and kick it under the seat.’ “
Villeneuve had done everything she was presumed to do in order to bring a service animal on a flight. She even tried showing the flight attendant Porter’s own rules uploaded on the airline’s website — but the crew member wouldn’t drop her demand.
An advocate for people with disabilities says he’s not amazed to hear what occured to Villeneuve, but is “deeply disappointed.”
That’s because mandatory rules around service animals on flights have been in place for years, so there’s no excuse for airline staff to step on the rights of disabled passengers, according to Robin East, co-chair of the Transportation Committee for the Council of Canadians with Disabilities.
Passenger invited back onto same flight
The plane had already left the gate when the pilot made the decision to get rid of Villeneuve from the flight.
“We were in the lineup to take off, he had to pull out of the taxi, he had to turn around. We had to go to the gate and we had to wait for people to show up,” Villeneuve said.
Flanked by the crew, she was escorted off the plane. “It’s so embarrassing. People in the back don’t know what’s going on. Did they think, ‘Is she drunk or did she light up a cigarette? What did she do?’ “
If the dog is larger, airlines are required to provide a seat next to the person with the disability.
Back at the gate, Villeneuve says things got even more bizarre.
She says a manager told the crew it had just broken the airline’s own rules, then told her she could return to the same flight — or take a later one.
Fearing the aggressive passenger and having lost trust in the airline, she refused both offers.
Porter criticizes ‘miscommunication’
The airline says the flight attendant didn’t initially tell the pilot that “the animal in question was a service animal. Therefore, the full context of the situation was not known when the captain decided to return to the gate,” Porter wrote in an email to CBC News.
Porter criticizes crew miscommunication, saying it takes full responsibility for what happened.
“This was an unfortunate case of human error that was worsen by a miscommunication between crewmembers, which led to the aircraft returning to the gate.”
“I don’t understand how they could get you that response,” said Villeneuve. “I think that the flight attendant and the pilot were negligent and disrespectful of not just myself, but everyone on the plane.”
After hearing from Go Public, the airline’s president visited with Villeneuve “to better understand her perspective, to take ownership of her experience, and to personally apologize.”
The airline promised to reimburse the Porter airfare, the ticket Villeneuve purchased on another airline to return home, as well as her additional expenses and $1,000 in compensation.
According to Villeneuve, the airline also offered to make a donation to the organization she chose.
“I’m still frustrated, which I think is understandable,” she said.
“But, I think taking this stance that Porter had to do a meaningful donation to … [Canadian Hearing Services] is sending a message to the company that they have to start maybe educating their staff and in how to handle passengers with disabilities.”
