JOERG KOCH/AFP/Getty Images
- A legally blind woman who needed a wheelchair and assistance to leave an Air Canada flight was left alone on the parked and empty plane.
- Pamela Prescod, 69, said she was left alone on the plane for an hour and was "traumatized" by the experience. She was eventually found by a maintenance worker.
- Air Canada apologized and said the incident was to a "miscommunication among crew," but disputed how long she was on the plane before she was found, saying it was closer to 15 minutes.
- The incident is the second to emerge in less than a week, after a woman said that she woke up in a dark, parked Air Canada plane earlier in June, leaving her with "night terrors."
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Air Canada left a blind wheelchair user alone on a parked and empty plane after her flight, in what is the second similar disaster to emerge in less than a week.
Canada’s CTV News reported on Wednesday that 69-year-old Pamela Prescod, who is legally blind and cannot walk without assistance, was left alone on a flight in April after staff told her that they would return to help her with customs forms and with leaving the plane.
Prescod told the outlet that it was the "scariest time of my life" and that she was found by a maintenance worker, but that she otherwise may have had to wait for hours for a cleaning crew to arrive.
Air Canada admitted the incident to CTV News, and said that it was due to a "miscommunication among crew."
Prescod said she was left on the plane for about an hour, while Air Canada said that its video footage showed her alone in the aircraft for 10 to 15 minutes.
CTV News
It said that it reviewed its procedures and made crew members more aware of their responsibilities as a result.
"Following this incident, we undertook to review our protocols with respect to on-board service," Air Canada wrote in the statement.
"This involves reinforcing our procedures by more specifically designating responsibilities among crew members to ensure consistent and proper care and handling of all customers, especially those with special needs."
Prescod’s story has emerged just days after another woman, Tiffani O’Brien, said that she was left alone on an Air Canada flight. The woman says she woke up alone on a locked and dark plane after falling asleep on her flight between Quebec City and Toronto.
O’Brien’s flight was after Prescod’s, but she publicly revealed her story first. O’Brien said that she woke up to find her plane empty, cleared and parked in Toronto in June, and that she was stuck until she was eventually able to get the attention of an airport employee.
Both women described the ordeals as terrifying.
Roberto Machado Noa/LightRocket via Getty Images
Prescod, who was returning to Canada after a three-month trip to visit family in Barbados said that she was "traumatized" by the incident.
She said she was "scared because I have all these health issues" and didn’t have a phone to call for help.
Air Canada told CTV News that it apologized to Prescod, refunded her flights, and offered her a £500 voucher to take flights in the future.
Business Insider has contacted Air Canada for comment.
Air Canada also said on Sunday that it was looking into how Adams could have been left behind on the plane as she slept.
It told INSIDER on Monday: "We have followed up with the customer and remain in contact with her."
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See Also:
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- American Airlines CEO reportedly told employees that the Boeing 737 Max’s return could be delayed even longer because of ‘politics’
Source: Business Insider – sbaker@businessinsider.com (Sinéad Baker)