Updated: June 21st, 2019 ago — I’ve been in contact with Air Canada, who has assured me they’ve been working directly with the passenger since the incident to make sure she’s taken care of, and are conducting a thorough internal investigation. I have every confidence this will be handled appropriately, and will update when I…
Continue reading: Wow: Passenger Wakes Up On Empty, Dark Air Canada Plane
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As a fellow Canadian, I do confirm that the airline felt waking her up was too rude of a gesture. We did turn off the light to make sure she has a better sleep quality and towed the aircraft to a secluded place for less noise pollution. However, I do apologize on behalf of the crew for not leaving the passenger a blanket and a few snacks to be more at home for the night. Sorry!
"40 to 50 foot drop to the pavement below" - That's where I stopped reading. I am not going to say it's impossible this happened, but this person is ridiculously inflating the dangers. The correct drop distance is 3.4m / ~11.1ft for an A320 series aircraft. Yes, not trivial and certainly there would be serious injuries from a fall onto the pavement. But not even close - and it's easy to find this information online.
I am impressed that someone can manage to sleep through a landing and the subsequent post landing announcements anyways?
@ cpdc1030 -- It's true that's not quite accurate, though virtually everything else in the story adds up, and I can also see how it could *feel* like that high when it's dark outside and you're panicking.
This is what I call overcompensating for fellow airlines. The other airlines dragged people off planes? We will let them sleep there. Overnight! Free of charge, I hope.
I would personally be in heaven. There is a cockpit to hang out in. A galley for food. Bathrooms. I mean, people pay for this at that aircraft hotel in Stockholm.
Weird to consider that there are plenty of people on FT who would pay to experience this.
So this person is sending a message to "Dee" and even takes Dee on FaceTime to show her - and this Dee person doesn't do a thing?
And this person does not even think of calling 911 - or whatever the Canadian emergency hotline is?
I don't believe a single word of that story.
A friend is an FA with AA and she says that it’s rare but not entirely uncommon for a passenger to sleep through landing and deplaning, probably a result of taking a cocktail of sleep sedatives during flight. I’ve slept like a baby on hundreds of flights but never through a landing, PA announcements, lights on, and a deplaning. Hard to imagine.
Still better than waking up on the F train in Coney Island with no shoes/wallet/phone
How do you even sleep through that? The airline should of seen her but I'm willing to bet that shealso took a heavier dose of sleeping aid or anxiety medicine than she should of.
I feel like I could've successfully armed the slide, opened the door and slid out.
And whatever that costs to re-load, I would not have been the slightest bit guilty about it.
This is a weird horror story, fortunately without serious immediate consequences.
@Chris
Some people are heavy sleepers. I had my own experience : slept through taxi, takeoff, flight ( 1 hour), landing, taxi in, deplane. Eventually shaken awake to find 4 FAs standing over me, clearly very relieved that I was alive.
It’s common for me to sleep for large portions of a flight.
that must be the creepiest thing ever :O
soooo jealous that some people seem to be able to sleep on a plane. This happened to me... never.
This would have been the perfect opportunity to finally get to use the exit slide and not feel guilty about it or have to do it in an emergency!
This would have been . . . AWESOME. Did she really think that no one was ever going to find her.
As "M" said above, when I wanted to leave I would have armed the slide and made my way out.
What a fun experience.
I've slept through landings or takeoffs before, but never had to be woken up to deplane.
@Ben, on an unrelated note, is the cover photo taken at SFO? Air Canada A320, hills, and Singapore Airlines at the same place.
Was there still alcohol on the plane?? That would have been my first mission.....
Thankfully she didn't go onto the tarmac? Imagine her getting runover by a plane (or worse).
This is the new Air Canada escape room experience. Its a new added option when you book the ticket. Sadly not very many puzzles involved.
Sooooo i don't understand the anxiety factor. I mean i get that she may be upset/annoyed about the inconvenience but did she really think she would be stuck there abandoned for days and starve to death? Chances are they were going to be using the plane again in the morning.
Now in terms of exit doors, i feel like she could have read instructions on activating a slide. But also opening the exit doors on the wing and walking out, might have gotten more attention. Depending on the jet, it may have been possible to simply jump down off the wing, especially if it was a regional embraer or bombardier.
I don't work for Air Canada, so I suppose I don't know what their shutdown process is, but I seriously doubt her story. I currently work as a flight attendant for a canadian airline, and prebiously worked with a different canadian Airline. After the last flight of the day the groomers go through the plane and maintenance comes on.
“40-50ft drop” LOL... more like 11ft drop. I personally would pay a considerable amount of money to be locked in an airplane overnight, as I’m sure many others would.
In all seriousness though, I understand she has anxiety, but it’s not at all hard to escape this situation without help
I understand her situation in the sense that I'd be scared too and anxious (I have anxiety issues myself.) What I don't understand is why she wants publicity for this...... I know for me I'd want to just simply move on.
"Clearly they’re not doing their jobs properly if they didn’t notice there wasn’t still a passenger on the plane."
Lucky, we know what you mean but you need to lose the n't in wasn't. : )
Personally I would have enjoyed it. The whole plane for myself, like sleeping on those hotels converted from aircraft..
If she HAD activated the slide this would have gotten waayyyy more interesting. Don't those things cost something like $30k to repair/repack? Much higher stakes and way more PR pitfalls!
@Kay - I agree. I regularly take the last AA flight into SAN and the plane sits at the gate overnight before departing the next morning at 0625. Th cleanup crews are waiting, very anxious to get everyone off so they can prepare the plane and presumably go home for the evening.
How did she not hear the landing and get off the plane announcements??' is she deaf too?? also never travel without a back-up power cell!! Daaaa
@SBS - Yep, that is San Francisco... Specifically the international terminal in the foreground (obviously with Sing and AC) and the "80s" gates of terminal 3 (united domestic) on the opposite side of the taxiway.
Not buying the story. Pearson has flights departing as late at 1:30 am and planes coming in pretty much throughout the night (the airport is still active at Midnight). Why would her friend not call 911 or AC customer service? It is possible but media would have picked up on this by now. Lastly if true..... she is my hero, those Rouge seats on the airbus are god awful and the fact she got into a deep sleep on them is amazing.
Fake News. This will NEVER happen on any planes. They’re making this up to gain publicity.
This happened simply because Air Canada employees is bunch of slob and don’t take safety seriously.
She should’ve gone on American Airlines.
Sounds goofy to me. She slept through a change in cabin pressure, the announcements, and the noise of folks getting their stuff out of the overhead bins? And the cleaning crew didn't find her, nor any of the cabin crew?
@Andrew - Why bother going Quebec City to Toronto via JFK (south of the border), when you can fly nonstop?
I presume the lady must have been covered from head to toe in a blanket and all cuddled up since she had a full row to herself. Maybe that's why they missed her. Just taking a guess because it sounds almost ridiculously impossible that she would be missed completely.
*Has enough battery life for 1 phone call*
*Facetimes Dee*
Some people are just dumb.
Common people What is wrong with you all ..I can only believe that one day your words and jokes will come back to get you .This was someones journey someones story someones very scarey experience ..HAS THE UGLINESS OF THIS WORLD LEFT YOU ALL EMPTY OF COMPASSION .
YOU ALL CONTRIBUTE TO TO THE LACK IN THE WORLD TODAY WITH ATTITUDE. EMPTY SOULS .SHAMEFUL.
If she suffers from insomnia now, it certainly wasn't a problem on the plane:) a weird story and a very weary passenger
Kind of with other people. I’d love to study the cockpit and galleys in more detail. Maybe even operate a couple of doors. You know just so that I’m better prepared in the event of an emergency.
One of my daughters can sleep through both take off and landing (without any sedatives). We have had to actually wake her when it was time to leave, so I can see that happening.
Personally, I would have thought this was cool, but then I also wouldn't have been terrified by an 11 foot drop either. If you climbed out of the door and hung down, it would be more like a 4 or 5 foot drop, so really not all that scary. I probably would have hung out in the plane for a while, then jumped down and strolled out onto the tarmac to catch a ride to the terminal. Maybe have even spent the night and surprised the crew in the morning!
I agree that the story does not add up, however, every single person here has worked with or met very incompetent people at their jobs who fail so badly that it should not even be possible. But some how, it happens. Humans find ways to fail no matter how many "checks" we put in place to prevent it.
I was going to type up examples of people failing in seemly impossible ways that it boggles the mind, but anyone who reads the news knows it happens. I have a feeling this story is BS, but I would not be shocked or surprised if it turns out to be completely true.
Jeez, y'all are so callous.
Taking her story at face value (it could all be BS) the amount of people claiming they don't get what the big deal is is absolutely insane. I mean, sure, she could probably rationalize that she's not going to die, but being trapped +anywhere+ overnight would be a big deal. I'm sure she has a job/family/TV shows she's like to watch instead of something.
People might happily pay to stay at a prison themed hostel - doesn't mean they should be happy to be arrested and forced to spend a night in the cells.
And as for someone misjudging a distance when she's stood on the edge of a drop looking out in the darkness when she's anxious and worried. I mean, how dare she, right?
I thought all of you were busy Fortune-500 execs with first class international flights booked back-to-back everyday this week. Being trapped somewhere overnight with no contact might be a bit of an inconvenience, no?
Oh, and facetiming Dee was dumb.
"Air Canada called Monday and Tuesday both people again ask me to repeat what happened apologize for my inconvenience and say they will do an investigation bc they have checks in place that should prevent people from being locked on the aircraft at night"
Yes indeed they do.
So shall we just sit tight and await that investigation and public report before concluding this did or did not happen?
Not every aircraft gets groomed right away and it is common for aircraft to get taken off the jet bridge as soon as the passengers and crew are off. The airline doesn't own the gates... the airport does. That aircraft could've been parked at the remote stand for eventual maintenance or ferry to another station.
I also wonder why her friend didn't call 911 to tell authorities that her friend was stuck on a parked aircraft. It's a large airport, but knowing her approximate tail number would have enabled airline folks to get a tail # and quickly find the aircraft.
I can see why she was scared. Like some other posters, though, I would've loved the experience and think it would have been fun. My phone is always charged and I carry a spare on the plane, but whatever, it would've been a story I'd be excited to share with other people.
But I'm also a light sleeper so I can't imagine sleeping through the landing or passengers disembarking.
A passenger with an idea of using the radio at cockpit, able to reach a flash light ot a totally dark plane, should definitely have an idea about basic safety stuff on it! Simply arm the a door and inflate the slide l, enjoy sliding down to the service area. Alternatively, open the wing door have some fun on the wing nd try to call someone out .
Sorry it wasn't me in that tragedy, I would turn it to a night of total non repeatable fun.
Side question, the cabin crew misses identifying a sleeping passenger, that is ok, he could be sleeping under the seat. But what about the cleaning crew who shoul start their job once the crew leave the airplane?
How clean Air Canada usually be?
It doesn’t add up. I think it happened, but I would not be surprised if she allowed it to happen on purpose for whatever her motives are.
It just so happened her battery was so drained, and she had one phone call, and in a fit of absolute anxiety she decides to FaceTime someone?????
Yes, whenever I wake up on a parked plane all alone in the dark my anxiety is so bad, and my panic attacks are so bad, that when I have 1% battery left on my phone I decide to FaceTime a friend with 1%... ?
Come on...
It's kind of puzzling to me. Flight attendants are trained to double check that all the passengers have disembarked the aircraft.
Happened to me one time a very long time ago on a train when I lived in Chicago briefly. Woke up at 3am in a railroad shunting yard. Quite a hike to the station, and impossible to find a taxi at that time of night. There was alcohol involved. I shrugged and survived. She’s a snowflake.
Reminiscent of United Airlines incident NINE YEARS AGO:
New York Daily News ›
"Woman falls asleep on United flight, wakes up alone after plane lands": https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/woman-falls-asleep-united-flight-wakes-plane-lands-article-1.180162
The same story was repeated twice with two United Express passengers in the past.
In December 2013, a man fell asleep on board a Louisiana flight to Houston. When he woke up in the dark of the empty plane, he realized he has been locked in. He called her sister to help him out. 30 minutes later, employees came to his rescue.
In May 2010, a Michigan woman who fell asleep during a flight and woke up locked in an empty plane filed a lawsuit against United Airlines and its partner airline.The complaint outlines a series of delays that led up to the woman falling asleep on the airplane. She was originally scheduled to leave Detroit at 6 a.m. She arrived in Philadelphia just before 12:30 a.m the next day!!! When a cleaning crew discovered her four hours later, it alerted the Transportation Security Administration and she was "wrongfully detained and interrogated," the complaint alleges.
The TSA did screw up again in this case.
"Welcome to the Hotel Air Canada"...
"You can check in but you can never leave!"...
Hogwash #1: She’s experiencing anxiety and insomnia following this incident, and I can’t blame her.
Hogwash #2: I haven’t got much sleep since the reoccurring night terrors and waking up anxious and afraid I’m alone locked up someplace dark.
This person is looking for a cash cow.
A hoax. Was the woman catatonic? Did the cabin crew forget to do a last pass through the cabin before deplaning? "Three latches" on the cabin door? A 50-foot drop to the tarmac? There may be a lot of hate for AC in the Great White North but I call bullshit. Can't wait for their reply and thanks for the clickbait.
For all those saying it's a hoax...she was evidently picked up by an airport employee so I guess they were in on it too...let's just say she intentionally pretended to be sleeping...the FAs still missed waking her up when they should have checked the plane. I'm sorry but hoax doesn't seem plausible to me
The story has been picked up by NPR. They provided the woman's name and said an AC rep confirmed her account. Hopefully this satisfies the skeptics shouting that she is only after a big payday. Hello... did you not read that this woman lives in Toronto? There is a reason why million dollar judgments are almost unheard of in Canada. This woman is more likely to meet a talking moose than get a fat award from AC or any other Canadian business.
Pure BS. And in case this is true, it is a perfect example of what is wrong with people today, so many snowflakes that are completely overwhelmed with real life outside their fagbook/twitter bubble
Sounds like pure bs to me. Next Headline, an ambulance chasing lawyer sues AC for millions of .
The airline confirmed the story, so those of you who don’t believe it happened? There you go. And as for it being weird or saying you’d enjoy being alone on a plane? Clearly, she’s not like you. I’m like her....dark place, I’ve just woken up and I’m not sure where I am, then I see I’m still on the plane!!! Take out my phone alert someone, oh wait, phones dead! Now every bad thought about being alone in the dark is surfacing because my imagination is way too active and I can’t even find any way to contact anyone and I get out of the plane because the jump is way too high and anyway, I don’t know which way to go.
Also, she has insomnia, so if she managed to sleep, she may have taken something. Still, I have been the last person to disembark and looked back and the flight attendant was checking each and every seat and the bathroom. So, I completely understand why she had the experience she did.
Whose to say she was asleep? Maybe she hid in the bathroom? If she sues Air Canada and gets money, will people then believe there was more motive going on here?
There’s no way you wake up in that situation (conveniently with no battery) and not call emergency services immediately. FaceTime a friend with no battery????
Why didn’t she just stay in the plane for seven days and then walk to the terminal? I though all Canadians were like Les Stroud.
She left out the part about law enforcement response, her getting questioned before allowed to.go home.
Here is the part where she goofed her story up...
Quote; When I see the **luggage cart** driving towards me I am literally dangling my legs out of the plane..he is in shock asking how the heck they left me on the plane..I’m wondering the same (snip-snip long rant about crew noticing reclinednseat but missing sleepyhead -snip-snip)
Anyway the guy had the **ladder dock** and I jumped to safety before he was even a foot from the door..the Air Canada cars pull up drive me up to Pearson"
End Quote.
How did the guy with the luggage cart end up having a ladder dock? He would have had to return to base to exchange one for the other but with him having radio communication in both vehicles, or if not then he had to have a portable/hand-held one himself, and surely, he would have radioed someone, which, yes, she memtions AC vehicles pulling up but what about law enforcement? No one filed an incident report? I'll buy that Canadians are very honest, very polite... But an incident like this and ZERO law endorcement response???
Additionally, luggage carts are driven towards planes that are at the gate, shortly before or during the boarding process...
... What was this guy doing driving a luggage cart towards the area where planes are parked for the night???
Also, this part.....
Quote: "so back to my distress signals now I’m hanging out the door reflecting the flashlight off the side of the plane (figuring reflective exterior will catch someone’s attention in the distance)"... End Quote.
Sure, AC aircraft are painted white... although I am not sure how much more reflective that is compared to her just shining the light towards the buildings as a distress signal... Also, flashing lights.... At an airport? As a distress signal? Assuming you can tell the difference between one standard emergency flash light flashing and the hundreds of other lights flashing all around, she would have been stuck out there for weeks before someone noticed her flashing SOS by reflecying...
The Next Headline From Air Canada....
"Air Canada Institutes A CHECK-OUT" Requirement After Arriving At Destination But Before Leaving Terminal".....
She should have flown United: they would have dragged her off - err, reaccomodated her.
Also, wouldn’t the FAs have woken her up to put her seatbelt on & tray table up and seat back up before landing? If she was sleeping, she most likely had reclined her seat.
Since when do Airbus doors (or any aircraft for that matter) have "3 latches"? It was semi-believable until I saw that. There's one handle "arm" that you move in the direction of the arrow to open the door. They even cover that in the safety demo. Window exits have one handle that you pull down on so it wasn't that either. Come on!
This justify the How I met your mother stereotype joke.
Canadians are afraid of the dark.
So a lot of people are expressing disbelief that she could've slept through everything. I have perfected the art of sleeping through just about anything. I have absolutely had to be woken up when it's time to deplane. One time I was quite excited to have snagged an upgrade to first on CX (dragonair) from HKG-PEK. However, I was so exhausted that I have no memory of take-off and just remember an extremely polite FA trying to wake me up to tell me it was time to get off. No medication or alcohol was involved, just a very long day.
Also, I challenge anyone to pump themselves up with adrenaline, look directly down from a window, and say with accuracy how far it is to the ground. I certainly question the logic of calling Dee instead of 911, but when you wake in a panic, you don't usually think clearly.
I’m sure the cabin crew check all passenger trays/seats/seat belts are secured pre landing. Was she sleeping on the whole row of empty seats or just in one seat? Sounds more like she hid or something. When you see you have low battery warning, you still fact time... hmm
"She’s experiencing anxiety and insomnia following this incident, and I can’t blame her — I imagine it could be quite scary to be on a pitch black plane with no way out and with no contact to the outside world."
What a load of complete and utter rubbish, you can be INCREDIBLY naïve!
She was on a comfortable plane full of unlocked doors in a staffed airport. She's not trapped injured in a cave in the middle of nowhere...
I think you'll find her anxiety and insomnia will be instantly fixed by a compensation payment.
I would do like she did except if the radio didn't work, I would try to taxi the plane. F the plane wheels were chocked, I would use the plane slide.
I call Bull%$@# on this one. Oh and weeks later I cant sleep... I am traumatised, .... I need millions to get over this.
Take some friggin responsibility for yourself and set an alarm. Must have been a pretty smooth landing.
Hope this woman doesn't walk around by herself off the leash.
If this is true then she’s got reason to be pissed, but did anyone else find her lack of punctuation and grammar to be completely distracting to the story? It’s embarrassing how poorly people write these days, completely lazy that they can’t find the time to add periods to their sentences. I had friends that do this on social media and give them hell for it every time. Just makes you look really lazy and illiterate. It’s social media, but you are still representing yourself to the public, Who the heck wants to present themselves as either lazy or illiterate?
I would have stayed on the plane. Raid the snacks, take all the complimentary peanuts, etc. Then in the morning, use the slide to go to work!
I would have put on the engine and start driving the plane then they would come to me right away LOL
This doesnt add up. Shes a liar. My aunt did this back in 2006 because shes a con artist. I mean "three latches" to get the door open? Theres only one. She just wants a free flight or two.
Also, if this plane RONd in Toronto, that meant before it was parked on the stand that cabin groomers wouldve cleaned it, and its daily maintenance check wouldve been completed at the gate. Not to mention the plane wouldve been taxied to the stand with someone riding the brakes. Shes full of it.
I can't speak for all carriers, but at my airline cabin crew are required to do a thorough post-flight walk-through to make sure no passengers are still aboard. This includes checking all closets and lavatories.
Alright. I apologize as apparently this story is finally getting some traction in the non-travel media and Air Canada is investigating. I feel bad for this person and hope she is ok.
This is now getting coverage on BBC news UK and world services, slightly different reports about what the passenger actually did.
This story is a total joke. Dangling legs and she jumped to safety before the stairway reached the airplane. Yah right. The latest news update is that she has hired a lawyer. I would love evidence that she hid in the bathroom to stage this story. What a bunch of bull ca ca this story is. Dead battery my foot.
I would have made my self something to eat, helped myself to some of those little alcohol bottles and would have live streamed from the cockpit.
There are just way too many weird “coincidences” that happened in this store for it to be believable.
1. First she messages her friend, and then after messaging her she FaceTimes her friend, and then her cell phone dies 1 min into it? Really?
2. How did she find her way into the cockpit and find the walkies (that didn’t work) and then find a flash light it was pitch black and she couldn’t see?
3. She has crippling anxiety and yet she was about to pull a James Bond type stunt, by lowering herself down 50 feet using a flight attendants seat belt, but the only reason why she didn’t do it was because the seatbelt was too short? Come on.
I don’t doubt that this lady was alone on the plane, But she is not being truthful in what actually happened.
#thetruthisoutthere
Many times the flight crew has woke me up to deplane. They let me sleep until they can leave.
Dramamine is involved.
One time on a redeye I went to sleep during taxi at Seatac, and slept through the takeoff, entire flight and woke on landing in Charlotte. Thanks to Ambien! 🙂
smh over the number of people who find it necessary to post disbelief. No doubt, this tale is incredibly improbable. But with over 4 billion airline seats sold worldwide annually, I'm willing to allow that some fantastically unbelievable things will crop up.
And, I suggest one never dismiss someone else's anxiety (over anything!!) I've know some extremely rational people who become irrationally anxious given the right set of circumstances. My own psyche is far too imperfect to call them on that.
I can believe that --- I fell asleep in train car because I had worked all day North of London --- I experienced same thing on a train from Paris to Zurich --- and the train car was disconnected and sidelined at the border (whilst the train continued North). Some crazy employee woke me up at 3AM - screamed and ran off. Everything was pitch black and I did not know where I was. I eventually found a passport station and surprised them when I walked up. TR White
OMG!
It must have been distressing.
I'm inclined to believe her as these things, no matter how unlikely, do happen.
Last year, I flew to Riga from Berlin Tegel.
The sign above indicated that the plane was going to Riga.
The flight staff scanned me in with my boarding card as going to Riga.
However, when I got into the plane somebody else was sitting on my seat.
It wasn't a big deal as this person had changed seats as it was "empty"
On trying to sort this out, a fellow passenger noticed that my boarding card had the symbol of another airline!
it was discovered that this plane was in fact, not going to Riga but Frankfurt!
I had done everything right. And you generally can't go wrong as Tegel is a tiny airport, but the (German) staff would have sent me off on the wrong plane.
To the wrong destination.
It can happen!
Would have loved the experience. A whole plane to MYSELF. What CREW was it and where do they take off next?
All that I can say is thank goodness I had yet to experience something like this. I am not interested in experiencing it either.
The only time I came close to something like this was on a ANA flight from Ho Chi Minh City to Narita. The ANA attendant approached me at landing in Narita asking me to awake. They were taxiing to the gate.
I was ill at that time. I had a headache and stomach flu. I fell asleep at takeoff in Vietnam and slept the whole flight to Japan.