Toronto – Air Canada said Sunday it’s looking into how crew members could have disembarked from a plane without noticing a sleeping passenger who was left behind.
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The airline was responding to an incident involving a woman who described waking up “all alone” on a “cold dark” aircraft after a flight to Toronto earlier this month.
“I think I’m having a bad dream bc like seriously how is this happening!!?!” Tiffani Adams recounted in a June 19 Facebook post sent by her friend, Deanna Noel-Dale.
The airline confirmed the incident took place but declined to comment on its disembarking procedures or how the passenger may have been overlooked.
“We are still reviewing this matter so we have no additional details to share, but we have followed up with the customer and remain in contact with her,” Air Canada told the Associated Press.
Adams wrote that after she woke up, she called Noel-Dale to try to explain what happened, but her phone died and she couldn’t charge it because power to the plane was off. She said she was “full on panicking” by the time she found the “walky talky thingys in the cockpit,” which also didn’t work.
After no one saw the “sos signals” she made by shining a flashlight out the window, she unbolted a cabin door. Facing a steep drop to the tarmac, she leaned out of the aircraft and called over a ground crew, who got her out.
The passenger wrote that Air Canada personnel asked if she was OK and whether she would like a limo and hotel, but she declined the offer. She said airline representatives apologized and said they would investigate.
“I haven’t got much sleep since the reoccurring night terrors and waking up anxious and afraid I’m alone locked up someplace dark,” she wrote.
The AP attempted to reach Adams through Noel-Dale’s Facebook account but had not received a response by late Sunday morning.
Air Canada said in a Facebook response to the post that it was surprised to hear the story and “very concerned,” asking Adams to send a private message with her flight details.
“We’ll take a look into it,” the airline wrote.
A nearly identical incident occurred on an American commercial airliner nearly two years ago; at that time, the passenger was rescued by a cleaning crew who came onboard, and unlocked the door to the plane. I’m not surprised by both incidents, since the level of competence of flight attendants, has gone down the drain in recent years. What a difference between them, and Capt. Chesley (Sully) Sullenberger, of US Airways, Flight 1549. After he made a forced landing on the Hudson River, and ordered the plane evacuated, he personally walked through the length of the cabin, more than once (with the water rising inside the cabin), to ensure that all the passengers were safely out of the passenger cabin. In this case, and in the prior case from two years ago, the flight crews were just too lazy and incompetent to have done so.
I disagree with anonymous, flight crews are not lazy. It’s an extremely taxing job trying to please everyone. The people sitting near this lady are at fault for not waking her up when they started to disembark. people need to come to the aid of others when the situation presents itself. We all need to help each other so at all times we must be cognizant of people in need. Instead of looking at our phones we need to look around for those who may need our help. It is also always important to remember that whatever happens to us is for a reward or punishment. This woman deserved this to happen to her because she did something similar to someone else like leaving her child alone somewhere out of negligence so too others were negligent with her. May we all learn to do the right thing.
This happens a lot more often than is reported in the media. People fall asleep, maybe covered with a blanket, other passengers are too busy trying to get off, sometimes they wake up themselves and walk off the jet bridge themselves, more often they are woken by cleaning crew. It just doesn’t get reported to make the global media.
This reminds me of my own very first airplane ride. In January, 1964, during my senior year at The High School of Music and Art (NYC), I had taken the train from NY to Rochester to take the entrance exams for The Eastman School – my second choice after Juilliard. I decided that I didn’t want yet another overnight train ride, so I cancelled my ticket and then booked passage on a flight to NY. It was evening when the plane took off, and I was exhausted from the day long entrance exam activities. I fell asleep. When I woke up, the plane was dark, and there wasn’t a sole on board. As I had a window seat by the port side wing, I looked groggily out ONLY TO SEE THE LOWER HALF OF A MAN’S BODY HANGING OUT WHERE THE PROPELLERS WERE SUPPOSED TO BE!!! Pure Twilight Zone! I screamed (who wouldn’t), and eventually some flight personnel came over to see what was wrong. They laughed at my concern about the body – it had since disappeared. You see, the plane had to make an unscheduled stop at Syracuse because a snow storm had temporarily closed both NY airports – and the body I saw was a maintenance man who had climbed into the propeller bay to do some maintenance.
Continued: The image of the body hanging out of the propeller bay never left me. I can see it to this day, 55 years later. I also recall my utter terror at the whole affair. Twilight Zone never bothered me after that – not even “off to the cornfield with you” – etc. Talky Tina however, might have given a shiver or two, now, but not William Shatner’s creatures on the wing – I saw them for myself, for real. Same vintage,