I found this story to be quite amusing when I read it on the Toronto Star website this morning. I think her flight was a connection and she didn’t realize it.
Halifax to St. John’s – via England
CANADIAN PRESS
ST. JOHN’S—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 about 10 years ago, was flying home to St. John’s late Thursday to be with her ailing mother.
She fell asleep shortly after the flight left Halifax. 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.”
“Then the pilot announced the possible arrival time and that the flying time would be 4 1/2 hours. I was shocked.”
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.
“I told him my family, my luggage, my medication, my clothes … is back in (St. John’s). I said, `I’ve got to get off this plane.”‘
But Air Canada officials in the city denied her request to turn the plane around.
Back in St. John’s, her sister and their mother began to worry and called the RCMP.
Coyle spent only two hours in London before boarding a return flight to St. John’s, for which she didn’t have to pay.
An official from Air Canada told her someone would call her today to discuss the incident.
“Whoever was on that plane is going to get a blast,” Coyle said.
By: dan330 - 10th December 2002 at 18:59
RE: Check your boarding card
Shes fuming at Air Canada? It sounds to me like its her fault!
A serious point to this, isn’t it a bit of a security risk that she was allowed to stay on to London when she was only sheduled to fly domestically, well not so much security but customs wise cause you wouldn’t need a passport domestically.
By: Ren Frew - 9th December 2002 at 19:34
RE: Check your boarding card
Doh ! of course I knew that all along (lol)
By: Bhoy - 9th December 2002 at 19:32
RE: Check your boarding card
yeah, presumably this one…
Flight Number: AC860
Operated By: Air Canada
From: YHZ – Halifax (NS)
To: LHR – London Heathrow (GB)
Stops: 1
it’s a 767-300, with an enroute stop at St. John’s, NF
By: Saab 2000 - 9th December 2002 at 19:25
RE: Check your boarding card
[updated:LAST EDITED ON 09-12-02 AT 07:26 PM (GMT)]So she got on a regional flight from Halifax to St.Johns,however, fell asleep and stayed onboard for the onward trip to London?Weird…you would think someone would wake her up and check,although on an aircraft of that size (767?) it is easier said than done.
Something similar has happened to me on a boat,lucky enough I got off on time :7 Lack of communications on the companies behalf…
By: Bhoy - 9th December 2002 at 19:23
RE: Check your boarding card
I think the point is, St. John was an en-route stop, and she slept through the stop…
By: Ren Frew - 9th December 2002 at 17:46
RE: Check your boarding card
I’d love to hear that conversation with Air Canada, Keep us posted with further developments would you ? Sounds like somehow at boarding she took the wrong ramp, don’t understand the significance of the different person sitting next to her when she woke up unless she is the first person to perfect inter aircraft teleporting ! (lol)
Sign In
December 9, 2002 at 5:31 pm