This week Air Canada got caught in the middle of a Twitter uprising after the airline broke a terminally ill child’s $15,000 wheelchair on a flight to La Guardia. Air Canada staff on the ground told the boy and his family that he would have to wait 5 days to get his chair back.

His aunt retaliated on Twitter, the Twittersphere took up his cause, and within 24 hours, Air Canada returned the repaired chair and offered the boy and his cousins a free trip to Disney World – a dream the boy, Tanner Bawn, has always had. In addition, the airline has offered to donate to a fundraising campaign to have Tanner’s home renovated so that the boy can die at home.

There are two things worth noting about this incident:

1. A passionate online community, when activated, can cause companies real grief, particularly if the fight pits David versus Goliath. This all started because Tanner’s aunt, a prolific blogger, tapped people in her social network (many of whom were on their way to New York to participate in a fundraiser for Tanner) and asked people to spread the word. As an influencer in her network, her call to action carried a lot of weight and likely caught Air Canada off guard. She’s proof that influencers have the power to quickly assemble an army of Davids who will take great delight in making Goliath’s life miserable.
2. Air Canada recognized their mistake and responded quickly. They could have ignored the social media masses, but they were smart enough to see that if they didn’t act quickly, they were setting themselves up for an ugly drubbing. Obviously, it would have been better if the folks on the ground had shown more consideration, but the corporate response went above and beyond, thereby quickly putting out the fire.

Some will argue that Air Canada only responded the way it did because of the social media uprising. That’s probably the case, but is that such a bad thing? Social media types like to talk about how important it is for companies to listen to the online community and respond accordingly. Looks like Air Canada did just that.