Travel News » April 2010 » Airline passenger falls asleep and gets a rude awakening in an aircraft hanger

Airline passenger falls asleep and gets a rude awakening in an aircraft hanger

12/04/2010

A British airline passenger claims he fell asleep on a flight and woke up several hours later in an aircraft hanger.

According to a report in the Canadian media, the Air Canada passenger was nudged awake by an aircraft mechanic who was surprised to find him still sleeping in his seat.

All the other passengers had disembarked from the aircraft at Vancouver but it seems cabin crew had failed to notice the passenger who had fallen asleep during the flight from Calgary.

Apparently the passenger, who had flown across the Atlantic from London earlier that day, continued to sleep for a further 90 minutes after the flight from Calgary to Vancouver had landed.

The passenger, who had been travelling for almost 24 hours when he fell asleep on the plane, admitted he was a heavy sleeper but he wrote a letter of complaint to Air Canada about the incident.

He told Canadian newspapers he was concerned about the security implications of such an incident. The University law professor, now safely back in the UK, pointed out that if he'd been a terrorist he would have had 90-minutes on the plane with no-one watching over him.

The deep-sleeper is not believed to be taking his complaint any higher, however. The airline has offered him a 20 per cent discount on up to four flights. It didn't say if it will be giving him some free Red Bull too.

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