Air Canada Says It's Looking Into Sleeping Passenger Incident
Air Canada said it's looking into a claim that a passenger slept through deplaning and then was left by herself on the plane after the process was complete.
According to a Facebook post her friend wrote to the airline on her behalf, Tiffani Adams allegedly fell asleep on a flight from Quebec to Toronto and awoke to find herself alone on a dark plane, parked far away from the airport terminal.
The post said that Adams' seat was still reclined and her tray table down, even after the plane had landed, all the other passengers had disembarked. Presumably Adams was left on the plane even after it had been serviced and inspected. According to the post, she was only able to exit the plane when a ground crew member, who Adams had signaled using an onboard emergency flashlight, brought what she referred to as a "ladder dock" to the parked aircraft.
Air Canada told The Associated Press on Sunday that it has been in touch with Adams, but told TPG on Monday that it no additional information to share as it investigates the incident.
It is rare, though not totally unheard-of for passengers to be left on out-of-service aircraft. In 2013 ABC News reported that Tom Wagner said he similarly fell asleep on a flight from Lafayette, Louisiana, to Houston, and awoke to find himself alone on an empty aircraft.
Unlike Adams, Wagner had enough of a charge left on his phone battery to call for help. ExpressJet, which operated Wagner's flight on behalf of United Express, acknowledged that Wagner had been left on the plane and issued him a $250 voucher for the inconvenience.
