Airline Wouldn’t Let These Passengers Off the Plane, So They Called the Cops

Passengers on an Air Transat plane were parked on the tarmac for about four hours when the cops pulled up outside.

The plane, flying internationally from Brussels, had to be diverted from its original destination of Montreal to Ottawa because of a thunderstorm. It landed in Canada’s capital at around 5 PM EST, and then it sat there. Laura Mah, one of the passengers stuck on the grounded plane, told VICE that the plane—which included babies and young children—was stifling, and that after a few hours people were getting pissed.

“The plane was super warm even with the minimal AC they could give us, they ran out of food, snacks, and eventually water,” Mah said.

“People weren’t getting violent or anything like that but they were certainly raising their voices being like ‘this is ridiculous, you can’t keep us here. We flew over seven hours from Brussels and you’re keeping us on the tarmac with no food or water and there are young babies on the flight.’ Just freaking out.”

Two rows ahead of Mah, a kid had vomited from the heat and stress, so that mixed with the heat and recycled air made for a rather unpleasant smell to top off everything else that was happening. After they stopped getting refueling updates from the crew, someone called 911—and, well, the cops showed up.

“The paramedics, fire department, and police showed up on the plane and people were just furious demanding to get off and for answers,” Mah said.

“I wasn’t surprised people called the cops. It was getting out of control and I think it was running through most people’s minds and it almost felt like this was illegal. You shouldn’t be allowed to do that so I think it got to the point of ‘well, if you’re going to do this to us, we’re going to call the cops on you.’”

The police couldn’t get people off and told them to hang tight. To alleviate the stress the police and firefighters started walking up and down the aisles giving out bottles of water.

“Eventually the [police] forced Air Transat to open the doors because it was just ridiculous, the heat in there and then we just kept sitting there and sitting there.”

While the cops could get the doors open, the passengers still couldn’t deplane so, again, they waited. At about hour five, Mah, on Twitter, asked the airport about what the hell was going on to which Ottawa airport apologized and said “it’s up to the airline to determine whether to deplane or wait it out when a flight diverts.” So, the passengers just kept sitting there and sitting there and sitting there for a few more hours until the plane took off from Ottawa at about 11 PM—landing in Montreal 30 minutes later.

When responding to customers stuck on the plane during the delay, the airline said they were “waiting for airport authorities, we have no control for that. [The Ottawa airport] received more than 30 non-expected flights.” VICE Canada reached out for further comment but has yet to hear back.

On the same night another diverted international Air Transat flight, this one coming from Rome, also played the waiting game on the Ottawa tarmac for four hours. Mah said that she gets that sometimes planes have to be diverted but doesn’t understand why she and her fellow passengers were locked into the plane for so long. So far, according to Mah, the airline hasn’t reached out to any of the passengers in terms of an apology or compensation for their treatment.

“I haven’t heard from them,” Mah told VICE. “But when I have the time I’m going to be giving them a stern phone call.”

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