December 9, 2002
MAYBE ALL THE NEWFIE JOKES ARE TRUE:
Woman falls asleep on flight to St. John's, wakes up in England: Air Canada staff didn't wake her up, wouldn't turn plane around (Brian Callahan, December 09, 2002, Ottawa Citizen)A Newfoundland woman is demanding answers from Air Canada after her 90-minute flight home became a 15-hour odyssey to England and back.Catherine Coyle, 39, who moved to Halifax 10 years ago, was flying home to the Newfoundland capital late Thursday to be with her ailing mother.
She fell asleep shortly after the flight left Halifax, tired after days of not sleeping and worrying about her mother. When she woke up several hours later, she immediately sensed something was wrong.
"I woke up about 1 a.m. and noticed that there was a different person sitting next to me," she said. "Then the pilot announced the possible arrival time and that the flying time would be four-and-a-half hours. I was shocked."
Ms. Coyle approached a flight attendant for an explanation and was told the flight was almost 30 minutes out of St. John's and headed to London, England.
"I told him my family, my luggage, my medication, my clothes ... is back in Newfoundland. And I said, 'I've got to get off this plane.' "
But Air Canada denied her request to turn the plane around.
Isn't she the one who owes someone some answers? Barring massive alcohol consumption or drug use, how'd this happen? Posted by Orrin Judd at December 9, 2002 9:36 AM
Actually, one would have thought that the flight attendants might have checked that everyone was off the plane in St. Johns (sp.). I think the woman has a point (unless she fell asleep in an overhead compartment)...
In any event, this is a rather novel twist to the all-too-common problem of arriving at your destination without your luggage.
I would think that someone who fell asleep on the bus and ended up nearly in Newark would understand the problem!
Posted by: dcj at December 9, 2002 10:51 AMI understand the problem of being irresponsible, but don't recall blaming the bus company.
Posted by: oj at December 9, 2002 11:07 AMMr Judd;
I must put some fault on the airline company. Mr. Meislin is correct that they should have checked for everyone being off the plane. How could they know that she wasn't experiencing a medical problem, or even dead?
Alternatively, this suggests an excellent method for saving on airline fares...
I don't think it was Air Canada's fault.
People have to be responsible for themselves.
Something similar happened to me on a train and I nearly ended up in Scotland but I didn't blame anybody else for it.
At the very least she could have asked her seat neighbour to wake her up in case she dropped off.
How are the flight attendants supposed to know what her final destination is?
Posted by: James Haney at December 9, 2002 4:40 PMSorry, Orrin, but I can't really put a lot of the burden of blame on this woman's shoulders. It seems to me that the flight attendants, having checked her ticket and taken note of her seat assignment, should have known where she was going to and where she was supposed to be getting off, and just how much of an imposition would it have been for them to go up and down the aisle when the plane got to Halifax, gently shaken the woman awake, and asked her something like, "I do beg your pardon, ma'am, but we've landed at St. John's. Are you getting off here or going on to London?"
Oh, but I forget; that would have been from a time when airlines actually gave _service_, rather than being flying buses.
The latest on this story is that Air Canada has now given this idiot 15000 air miles, which is basically a free return ticket from NF-NS. I mean come on, for being stupid and then freaking out she gets a free ticket, Give me a break!
Sure, the airline COULD have woken her up, but when was the last time you wrote to the maker of your alarm clock and complained that it didn't wake you up on time? Oh wait, Air Canada is an AIRLINE, not an alarm clock company.
I don't think this twit deserves free air miles, an appology or the time of day. Her fault, her problem. Sure Air Canada was nice enough to accomodate her and fly her back to Canada, but did they really have a choice? And who puts medicine that they need in their checked baggage? I think this woman was a crack pot all around.