Zosia Ettenberg was ready for her trip to the Canadian Boccia Tournament in November 2024.
The Langley resident, who uses a powered wheelchair, had booked a 4 a.m. WestJet flight from the Abbotsford International Airport to Ottawa to compete, and the airline was aware that she would need her chair brought along as luggage.
At the airport, Ettenberg was taken on board using an airport wheelchair, then other passengers boarded. But the plane didn't take off.
"They came up to me and said, 'Oh, by the way, we can't put your wheelchair on the plane,'" Ettenberg said.
She was told that her powered chair was two inches too large to fit. Then they asked her if they could simply leave it behind and fly her to Ottawa without it.
But of course, there was no replacement wheelchair waiting for her in Ottawa. Both powered and manual wheelchairs cost thousands of dollars, and each user has different requirements for the size and type of chair they use.
"After a long discussion, they took me off the plane," Ettenberg said.
After some frantic discussions with the airline, and with SportAbility BC, which organizes adapted sports programs for athletes with disabilities, Ettenberg was off again. This time she was sent to Alberta, where she had a lengthy layover before a connection to Ottawa. She arrived in Ottawa at 1 a.m., and had been up for about 23 hours.
"I was exhausted and emotionally tired," Ettenberg said.
SportAbility managed to arrange the rental of a roughly comparable powered wheelchair for Ettenberg to use during the boccia tournament.
"I was really lucky that I had some good people on the other end that were picking me up," she noted.
But after a full day in uncomfortable airport wheelchairs and airline seats, Ettenberg said her legs had begun to swell.
She still attended and competed in the tournament, and came home with a bronze medal in the open category.
"Everybody was so nice, so helpful," she said.
But despite attempts to contact WestJet's Disability Assistance email, she hasn't had a real response yet about what she called the "trip from hell."
Her legs were so swollen when she returned home that she was barely able to move for the next several weeks.
"I couldn't even bend my knee to get it onto the foot pedal," she said.
Ettenberg has long been an advocate for people with disabilities, and is the founder and executive director of Langley Pos-Abilities, which does accessibility audits, educational campaigns, and has helped people find inexpensive or repaired personal assistive devices.
WestJet apologized for the incident but defended itself.
"We sincerely apologize to Ms. Ettenberg for the inconvenience she experienced on her recent travel journey," Julie Brulet, WestJet's public relations coordinator, told the Langley Advance Times. "Upon being notified of this incident through your inquiry, we escalated this file to our accessibility team, and they were able to confirm that the accommodation originally requested was included in this flight booking."
Brulet said at the time of booking, Ettenberg indicated that her powered chair was 36 inches tall, but the chair was 40 inches tall even with some parts removed. Powered wheelchairs must be loaded in an upright position so the taller than expected chair didn't fit into the cargo hold upright, she explained.
"This is critical both for the safe operation of our aircraft and the safe handling of these sophisticated powered mobility aids to ensure they are not damaged during transport," she said.
Brulet added that the airline's standards are consistent with Canada91ÂãÁÄÊÓƵ™s other major airlines and supported by the Canadian Transportation Authority in line with global airline guidance from International Air Transport Association.
