Airplane passengers called 911 after being stuck inside a plane on the tarmac for six hours while staff waited for bad weather to pass, for refueling, and for clearance to take off again.
An Air Transat flight from Brussels was one of several diverted to the Ottawa Airport on Monday during a series of thunderstorms, instead of landing in Montreal, CBC News reported. The flight was supposed to land in Montreal at 3:15 p.m., but ended up in Ottawa around 5 p.m. instead.
After landing at Ottawa, passengers were then stuck on the tarmac for six hours, not allowed to get off the plane even when the power failed and they were left without air conditioning, food, and water, CBC News reported.
Passenger Laura Mah spoke to CBC News during the wait. “The plane actually lost power and went zero AC, and then now we’ve got the doors open and one kid is puking, and people are just losing their minds,” Mah said. Mah also tweeted to the airport about the delay, but only got a response that it was up to the airline whether to deplane, CBC News reported.
When one passenger called 911, paramedics came and the airport began to hand out water to the passengers. Snacks were given to the children on the flight only, Mah told CBC.
The plane finally landed in Montreal 15 hours after takeoff, the Montreal Gazette reported. More than 30 flights were reportedly diverted because of the afternoon weather, with some of them also sitting on the tarmac for hours.
A bill currently under consideration in Canada would require the airline to supply food and water if the aircraft is on the tarmac for more than three hours and to allow disembarking whenever possible, the Gazette reported.
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