A 26-year-old Irish woman says she was humiliated and left to deal with a hefty, unexpected hotel bill after "aggressive" Air Canada cabin crew members forced her to sit in her own urine for seven hours during a flight to Toronto.
The woman was flying with Air Canada from Bogota to her home in Dublin with a layover in Toronto last month when the incident is said to have occured.
The first leg of her journey was delayed by two hours, during which time passengers were inside the plane, waiting for takeoff on the tarmac.
Nature called and the woman says she asked to use the plane's bathroom, only to be refused by staff.
Dublin woman spends 7 hours in own urine after cabin crew refuse toilet access. A terrible example of customer relations by Air Canada.
— Pete Coleman (@PeteColeman11) September 30, 2019
The mind boggles as to why flight
staff wouldn't let her use the loo.https://t.co/1IttsJgQtn
"I asked four times over a two-hour period if I could use the toilet and told a cabin crew member that it was an emergency and I was going to have an accident if they didn't let me use the toilet," she said to Dublin Live in a piece published this week.
"I was aggressively told to go to my seat and denied access to the bathroom. Eventually, I had an accident."
The woman says she got up from her seat and and walked toward an onboard bathroom one point, knowing that the plane was fully stationary, not taxiing or taking off.
"I was aggressively told by who I assume was the head crew member to get back in my seat," she said, noting that a crew member named John "screamed into my face 'get back into your seat now ma'am'."
@AirCanada proven time & time again they're the MOST DISGUSTING WORST AIRLINE IN THE WORLD 😡😡 The employees guilty of disrespect & denying facilities to this lady should be charged & fired😡😡 AC MUST fairly compensate lady & apologize publicly to her
— 🇬🇧🌹Debbie🌹🇬🇧 (@DebbieGBUK) October 1, 2019
https://t.co/bCsB2OXOFy
Unable to get up without having her head bitten off, the woman sat in her own pee for seven hours until the plane landed in Toronto. She told Dublin Live that the cabin crew ignored her for the entire flight.
"When I was leaving the plane I looked for the different crew members who I had asked to use the toilet to left them know how disgusted I was at how they treated me but they had cowardly hid at the back of the plane," she said.
Upon arriving in Toronto, the woman says she had to pay for a hotel room so that she could shower and change before catching the connecting flight.
She complained to the Air Canada when she got home to Dublin and was allegedly offered a $500 voucher for flights with the airline.
Wow @AirCanada Denying a person a human right to use the bathroom on a stationary plane & then forcing the poor woman to sit in her own urine for the flight. Then your cowardly crew members hid on her so not to listen to a complaint. Disgusting airline #aircanada
— Annie Dwyer (@anniedw84) October 1, 2019
The woman told Dublin Live that Air Canada admitted she should have been allowed to use the bathroom and that the issue had been brought up with the cabin crew involved.
The woman was unimpressed with Air Canada's apology, hence her decision to contact the press.
"I don't think it's good enough that the cabin crew got away with nor is it good enough that I was compensated with a voucher I can only use on Air Canada and not their partners, so I will never use it," she said to Dublin Live.
The story has since been picked up by multiple U.K. and international news outlets, prompting messages of disbelief and outrage from frequent flyers.
@AirCanada .....Bravo Air Canada ....another great example of customer service wonder who runs Air Canada ? passenger ‘forced to sit in her own pee for 7 hours after cabin crew refused to let her use the loo’ – The Sun https://t.co/4OMNBLEFla
— Lan Wan (@Lan_Wan) October 1, 2019
"Air Canada, have a real good read of this," tweeted one person of the incident. "Is this how your crew treat customers? You ought to be ashamed of yourselves! I hope that girl is ok. How low you can you get on treating individuals like that? Bye."
"Air Canada crew must be dismissed," tweeted another. "Never fly Air Canada."
Air Canada has yet to respond to a request for comment, but this isn't the first time the airline has come under fire over the behaviour of its employees.
Just two months ago, Air Canada employees forced a 12-year-old girl to remove her hijab at an airport in San Francisco. The move has been criticized widely by civil rights groups who say the incident violated the child's right to privacy and equal access.
by Lauren O'Neil via blogTO
Impressive！Thanks for the post
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