Rick Hopper pictured at Adelaide Airport, is suing Virgin Australia. Picture: Dylan Coker Source: adelaidenow
A BALI escape for an Adelaide man ended with him being catapulted face-first from a wheelchair and headlong into a court battle with an airline.
Rick Hopper is suing Virgin Australia over the incident in which he was flung from a wheelchair as he boarded a flight from Perth to Adelaide after the Bali trip with his wife in 2011.
Mr Hopper, 59, who needed help because of a knee injury, was being wheeled down an airbridge to the plane when the wheelchair caught on a plate and sent him hurtling.
He says he suffered injuries to both knees and his head and exacerbated an existing hip condition, forcing him to undergo a double hip replacement.
He has launched District Court action against the airline, claiming its employees failed to help him after the accident and it had breached its duty of care.
"It was an all-male crew and they came running after the fall then said 'I didn't see anything' and then walked away and left me, didn't even help me up, and that's what hurt me," he said.
"I thought they would have done a bit more. They never even said 'are you all right?' and 'do you need to go to hospital?'."
Mr Hopper said he spent almost five months off work after surgery.
He said he hoped his legal fight would stop other people being hurt in the same way.
"If it was an older woman they probably would have broken a few bones," he said.
In its statement of defence, Virgin Australia said the man pushing the wheelchair was an employee of contractor Aero Care Pty Ltd, which has been added as a defendant in the case.
Virgin claims Mr Hopper should have told the employee to slow down, worn a seatbelt and kept a firmer grip on the wheelchair.
It says he unbalanced the wheelchair by carrying luggage on his lap.
Court documents do not show how much compensation Mr Hopper is seeking. The case returns to court in May.
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