CNN
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Air Canada has issued an apology after two passengers were asked to sit in poorly cleaned seats that were covered in vomit on a previous flight.
Passenger Susan Benson posted details of the incident, which occurred on a flight from Las Vegas to Montreal on August 26, online.
“There was a bit of a stench but we didn’t know at first what the problem was. Apparently on the previous flight someone had vomited in that area.” Air Canada tried to do a quick clean up before boarding but apparently they weren’t able to do a clean up comprehensive,” Benson wrote in a Facebook post posted Aug. 29.
“They put coffee grounds in the seat bag and sprayed perfume to mask the smell. When visibly upset passengers tried to explain to the flight attendant that the seat and seatbelt were wet and that there was still visible vomit residue in their area, the flight attendant apologized profusely but explained that the flight was full and there was no What they can do,” she added.
Passengers and cabin crew “argued back and forth for several minutes,” Benson wrote, before a supervisor came over and reiterated that passengers would have to stay in the vomit-covered seats because the flight was full.
Benson goes on to tell how the pilot got off the plane to talk to the passengers and let them know “They can leave the plane…and organize the flights at their own expense, or they will be escorted off the plane by security and put on the no-fly list!”
The explanation was that they were “rude” to the flight attendant, but Benson questions that.
“They certainly weren’t! They were upset and firm, but not rude!” I wrote.
Although one of the passengers tried to explain the situation, security escorted them off the plane.
Why? “Refuse to vomit for five hours!” wrote Benson, who said the airline “literally expects” its passengers to “sit up vomit or be escorted off the plane and put on a no-fly list!”
Then she admitted that she did not know if the passengers had actually been placed on the no-fly list.
“I am ashamed of being Canadian and ashamed of Air Canada,” she wrote. “Shame on you, Air Canada! Shame on you!”
CNN has contacted Benson for further comment.
Air Canada told CNN in a statement that it has issued an apology to customers “because they clearly did not receive the level of care they deserved.”
“We are reviewing this serious matter internally and have followed up with customers directly as our operating procedures were not properly followed in this case,” the statement continued.
“We are in contact with them about this,” the airline added.
This is not the first incident involving bodily fluids on board aircraft in recent months.
In June, Habib Battah was traveling from Paris to Toronto on Air France when, shortly after take-off, he noticed a strange smell emanating from the footwells under his and his wife’s seats.
“It smelled like dung,” he told CNN.
Then Battah noticed a wet spot on the ground. The staff provided him with cleaning wipes and when he used them to scrub the stain it kept turning red.
A flight attendant informed her co-workers, and the captain radioed Paris, asking about the spot under seats 30A and 30B.
The news came from the headquarters of Air France: it was human blood. The day before, one of the passengers had what Buttah said the crew described as “bleeding”.
Three days after his flight, Batah was contacted by Air France and told him that blood had been mixed with the stool.
Air France told CNN it “understands and regrets the inconvenience caused by this situation” and is in contact with Battah.