Ever had a nightmare in which you wake up at night, alone, strapped in a seat in a completely dark and freezing cold room with no means to contact anyone?
That's the story Air Canada passenger Deanna Noel-Dale told about what was supposed to be a simple 90-minute flight from Quebec City to Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this month.
Her account was posted on the airline's Facebook page.
Noel-Dale, who in the wake of the incident has been experiencing anxiety and insomnia, wrote that she fell asleep in a row of seats on a nearly empty flight and by the time she woke up the plane that already arrived at its destination and had been parked away from the nearest terminal.
Her cell phone battery was depleted, therefore useless, and there was no power on the plane to recharge it.
No one else was on the pitch-black plane.
Noel-Dale made her way to the cockpit where she eventually found a flashlight. The light helped her figure out how to open the main exit door. But she was presented with another problem: there was no gangway, so she was staring at what she said was a 40-50 foot drop to the ground, hardly an attractive means of escape.
So she focused the flashlight on the plane's exterior, hoping that the reflection might catch someone's attention. In time, the driver of a luggage cart came to her rescue.
Noel-Dale said Air Canada representatives offered her a ride home and then called her twice to apologize and say they've launched an investigation into how she was missed by the plane's crew when everyone else got off the flight in Toronto.
She says she's still recovering from the incident. "I haven't got much sleep since the reoccurring night terrors and waking up anxious and afraid I'm alone locked up someplace dark," she wrote.
A representative for Air Canada confirmed Noel-Dale's account, adding they "remain in contact with her."
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