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Amputee forced to crawl after airline confiscates scooter batteries

KELOWNA, British Columbia — An amputee had to crawl across a hotel room floor during his 43rd wedding anniversary vacation after a security agent at Calgary International Airport and United Airlines confiscated the batteries for his portable scooter.  Now he's filed complaints with the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

It's been two years since Calgary's airport security and United Airlines seized the battery for Stearn Hodge's scooter, citing safety concerns that lithium batteries posed a potential fire hazard.

Global standards allow people with disabilities to travel with batteries for medical devices as long as they're in carry-on luggage. Hodge says without a working scooter, he had to drop to the ground and crawl. He says it was humiliating.

"It's imprinting just how disabled you really are. And it's pretty hard to let that go," Hodge told CBC.

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A couple of months earlier, WestJet seized his batteries. He only got them back moments before that flight.

United Airlines, WestJet and airport security have all apologized to Hodge. The airlines offered him travel credits, but since those incidents Hodge says he's been stopped more than a dozen more times.

Now he wants his case heard by the Canadian Human Rights Commission, where he can seek damages for pain and suffering and discrimination.

Hodge says he often hears from people discriminated against at the airport. Even with regulations in place, there are seizures for equipment that should otherwise be able to go onto the aircraft. That leaves people with disabilities very vulnerable.

Over the past three years, the number of disability related complaints filed with the Canadian Transportation Agency has climbed to more than 500.

Ultimately, Hodge said he's hoping for a ruling that will force airlines and airport security to abide by protections already in place.