Voted best airline in North America for the third year in a row at the 2019 Skytrax World Airline Awards, Air Canada is facing some serious questions after a woman was left alone sleeping in the dark in a parked aircraft.
Tiffani Adams fell asleep during her flight en route to Toronto from Quebec City and woke up alone in an empty plane. All of the lights were off and the crew was gone, and no one saw the “SOS signals” she made by shining a flashlight out the window. Adams unbolted a door, but was unable to jump down to the tarmac. She then leaned out of the aircraft and called for help, and was rescued by a baggage cart operator.
Adam’s friend, Deanna Noel-Dale, shared a Facebook post Adams wrote about her terrifying ordeal, where she remarks that she has an anxiety disorder.
“I haven’t got much sleep since the reoccurring night terrors and waking up anxious and afraid I’m alone locked up someplace dark,” Adams wrote in the post.
Adams added that Air Canada offered her a limo and a hotel, but that she declined both.
Ross Aimer, CEO of Aero Consulting Experts and a former airline captain, says he’s never heard of such an incident in his roughly four decades of aviation service, and that multiple errors would have to be made to overlook a passenger during disembarking.
He says while a cleaning, catering or flight crew would have discovered Adams in the morning had she not been so proactive, it’s possible someone with malicious intent could hide on a plane in this manner and attempt to hijack 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,” Air Canada told the Associated Press.
Elana Shepert, Vancouver Is Awesome, with files from The Associated Press and The Canadian Press.