Man ‘humiliated’ after being kicked off Virgin flight

Disability advocate Shane Hryhorec was removed from a Virgin Australia flight from Sydney to Adelaide due to an issue with storing his portable wheelchair motor. He had been on three Virgin flights previously with no problems.

Hryhorec, who has C5 incomplete quadriplegia, was travelling with his service animal and a wheelchair with a portable electric motor. When he boarded the flight, there was no space to store the device under the seats in his row, as instructed by the crew.

Hryhorec expressed feeling humiliated by the experience, stating it made him feel "so small" and described it as "awful" that such discrimination could occur. Virgin Australia said it is looking into the issue and reviewing its policies on storing portable wheelchair motors.

Brief written by urgent.news from The Sydney Morning Herald, ABC News AU — 2 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.