Two passengers on an Air Canada flight were escorted off after they refused to sit in poorly cleaned seats that had been covered in vomit. The women passengers were flying to Vienna via Montreal.
A fellow passenger, Susan Benson shared the incident in a now-viral Facebook post. The incident occurred on board a flight from Las Vegas to Montreal on August 26.
“There was a bit of a foul smell but we didn’t know at first what the problem was,” Ms Benson wrote in the post. “Apparently, on the previous flight, someone had vomited in that area. Air Canada attempted a quick clean up before boarding but clearly wasn’t able to do a thorough clean.”
According to Ms Benson, the seatbelt and seat were still visibly wet and there was vomit residue around the seats. The airline tried to mask the smell with the scent of perfume and coffee grinds, but that didn’t help.
“They placed coffee grinds in the seat pouch and sprayed perfume to mask the smell. When the clearly upset passengers tried to explain to the flight attendant that the seat and seatbelt were wet and there was still visible vomit residue in their area, the flight attendant was very apologetic but explained that the flight was full and there was nothing they could do,” she added.
The passenger and crew argued for several minutes before a supervisor came over and reiterated that the passenger would have to stick to the vomit-covered seats as the flight was full.
Moments later, a pilot came down the plane to speak to the passengers, telling them that “they could leave the plane… and organize flights on their own dime, or they would be escorted off the plane by security and placed on a no-fly list!”
The pilot said that the passengers were rude to the flight attendants, but Ms Benson disagreed.
“They were certainly not! They were upset and firm, but not rude!” she wrote.
In fact, a fellow passenger tried to explain the situation, but the pair were then escorted from the plane by security.
“For what? Refusing to sit in vomit for five hours!,” wrote Ms Benson, who said the airline “literally expects” its passengers “to sit in vomit or be escorted off the plane and placed on a no-fly list!”
She concluded the post by saying, “I am ashamed to be a Canadian and ashamed of Air Canada. Shame on you Air Canada! shame on you!”
In a statement to CNN, Air Canada issued an apology to the customers, “as they clearly did not receive the standard of care to which they were entitled.”
“We are reviewing this serious matter internally and have followed up with the customers directly as our operating procedures were not followed correctly in this instance,” the statement continued.
“We remain in contact with them about this matter,” the airline added.
A similar incident took place in July this year when a passenger onboard an Air France plane was left terrified after he spotted a carpet soaked in blood.
Habib Battah took to Twitter to share details about the distressing incident that occurred during his flight from Paris to Toronto.