Sleeping Passenger Offered Excuses by Airline After Waking Up in Hangar

Perhaps courtesy wake-up calls should be the next service introduced by airlines.

At least that’s what Kris Lines — a British law professor on his way to Vancouver — probably wished he had. Lines was on a 90-minute connecting flight after flying from London to Calgary, when he decided to take a catnap. According to abc News, he was woken an hour and a half after the plane had landed. Inside an empty hangar. By a mechanic.

He was flying with Air Canada’s discount regional carrier, Jazz. The “no-frills” aspect of discount airline travel is understandable — no checked luggage, no meals, no movies — but not waking up passengers when the plane lands? One would hope that’s something included in the price of a ticket.

Gadling reports that Lines was offered a 20% discount voucher for a future flight, who called the offer “absolute craziness”. Although Air Canada did not disclose what led to the event, Lines volunteered the email he received from the airline, as published at consumerist.com:

“Although there was no excuse for the incident that occurred, it appears the flight attendant on this occasion was dealing with several wheelchair passengers and co-ordinating their departure from the aircraft…

Although the flight attendant advises he did look back into the aircraft to check for any passengers still on board, he did not walk through the aircraft cabin as he was engaged with handling the passengers in wheelchairs requiring assistance.

I can assure you that no previous incident of this nature has occurred and that this matter has been thoroughly reviewed with the crew member concerned and other crews operating similar aircraft to ensure an incident of this type does not happen again.

Please accept our sincere apologies for the inconvenience caused to you on this occasion.”

Lines was not happy with this explanation and instead brought forth other possible circumstances, one which should have airport security reeling. From the Ottawa Citizen:

“If I’d been a vulnerable passenger, a young girl or elderly, it could have been a lot worse…the other implication is that if I was a terrorist, then I’ve got an hour-and-a-half after the plane’s landed, all by myself, in a secure area on a plane.”

He did show some humour, though, when he shared the lesson that he learned from the incident. The next time he flies with Air Canada he’s going to wear something more reflective or glow-in-the-dark to make sure someone sees him.

Image: Soon / Flickr