Most passengers should understand that aircraft cannot be thoroughly cleaned after every flight. After all, they also want to arrive as punctually as possible. On an Air Canada flight, cleaning was probably neglected a bit too much. Now the airline had to apologize to two passengers for the resulting escalation.
On a flight from Las Vegas to Montreal, passengers complained about vomit in their seats before departure. “There was a somewhat disgusting smell in the air, we didn’t know why at first. Apparently a previous passenger had vomited on the last flight,” said a fellow passenger named Susan Benson, describing the situation for the first time in a Facebook post last week. In the end, two women were escorted off the plane by security personnel.
“They placed coffee powder in the seat pocket and sprayed perfume to disguise the smell,” says Benson, explaining the flight crew’s efforts to conceal the consequences of the incident. However, the disgusted passengers then informed the flight attendant that the belts were still wet and that there were still remnants of vomit. The angry passengers initially demanded to be given other seats. The flight attendants showed understanding, but ultimately were unable to help. “They were told the flight was full and there were no other seats.” The team leader who was called in could only confirm this.
When the passengers finally tried to cover the seats with blankets, the pilot suddenly appeared. “He knelt down next to them and very calmly told them that they now had two options.” But the two women may have liked it even less: “They could leave the plane and book an alternative at their own expense. Or they would be removed from the plane by security forces and put on a no-fly list,” Benson recalls. The reason given by the captain was the disrespectful behavior of the passengers. “But they weren’t! Just upset and determined,” she remembers. Security forces actually showed up to take the two women off the ship. “I’m ashamed of being Canadian and of Air Canada,” she sums up her frustration. “The airline really expects you to sit in vomit for hours or be escorted away by security guards.”
The airline confirmed the incident. Air Canada told several media outlets that they had contacted the affected passengers and apologized. The “serious incident” is now being investigated. According to the airline, it is already certain that the protocols for the crew were not followed. “They clearly were not treated to the standard they deserved.”
Sources:Facebook Post, CNN, Washington Post, AP
