Air Canada passenger says she was left alone on "freezing," dark plane hours after flight
Air Canada says it's reviewing how a passenger was abandoned on a cold, dark plane hours after it arrived in Toronto. The passenger called it a "nightmare" scenario and said she's been suffering from anxiety and night terrors ever since.
In a post shared on Air Canada's Facebook page by a friend, a passenger named Tiffani Adams said she had a row to herself on a flight from Quebec City to Toronto on June 9. She fell asleep halfway through the 90-minute trip. She says she woke up still strapped to her seat around midnight — hours after the plane landed at Pearson Airport — and says she was in "complete darkness" and "freezing cold."
Sharing for my friend Tiffani Adams Another sleepless night for moi unfortunately insomnia doesn’t care that I work in...
Posted by Deanna Noel-Dale on Wednesday, June 19, 2019
"I think I'm having a bad dream [because] like seriously how is this happening!!?!" Adams wrote.
"I'm full on panicking [because] I want off this nightmare ASAP."
She says she couldn't charge her phone or use the plane's radio to call for help because there was no power on the plane. She found a flashlight in the cockpit and tried sending distress signals out the windows.
After managing to unlock a door, she says she looked for a rope to try climbing down "a 40-50 foot drop." A luggage cart handler noticed her legs "dangling" out of the plane and helped her jump down safely.
Adams says Air Canada representatives offered her "a limo and hotel," apologized and said there would be an investigation.
"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.
Air Canada responded on Facebook to the post by Adams' friend, writing, "We're surprised to hear that and we're very concerned... We'll take a look into it."
"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," the airline said in a statement.
When reached for comment, a Toronto Pearson International Airport spokesperson said, "We are aware of this passenger's story and we can certainly empathize with the concern she must have felt."