A passenger on an Air Canada flight to Toronto fell asleep only to wake up alone and trapped hours after the plane had landed.
Tiffany Adams found herself alone in the cold plane enveloped in total darkness shortly before midnight on June 9.
After awakening in the plane, Adams said she felt a “sheer sense of, like, helplessness.”
“I thought this was a nightmare — this is not happening.” Adams, who had the name Tiffani Louise O’Brien on her plane ticket, said in an interview with Morgan Winsor of ABC News.
Adams texted her friend saying, “I just woke up alone in plane” and “Omg.” before her phone died.
A plane devoid of passengers (Shutterstock)
Adams said she then attempted to charge her phone in as many USB ports as she could find, but was unsuccessful, as the plane had no power. Adams was “trying to focus on [her] breathing and control [her] panic attack,” as she did this, she said in a Facebook post.
Adams then began to search for a way to escape as she was “full on panicking bc I want off this nightmare asap.” After breaking into the cockpit, she said she was able to find a flashlight, which she used to make “some flashy sos signals out the windows hoping someone sees me.”
Using the flashlight to light her way, Adams said she opened all three latches on the main door of the plane. The distance down to the ground from the plane was too great of a drop, so she searched “frantically” for a rope.
Adams only located the seatbelt on the flight attendant’s seat, which she said was “too short to hang from.”
The door of a commercial aircraft. (Shutterstock)
Adams sat down at the open door, dangling her legs down and “reflecting the flashlight off the side of the plane.” She said that while she was sitting at the door of the plane, she was “not sure how much time has passed bc no phone no nothing.” (RELATED: Cam Newton Offers Plane Passenger $1,500 To Switch Seats, Gets Turned Down)
Finally a luggage cart approached the plane and Adams “jumped to safety,” she said.
An Air Canada representative offered her a free limousine ride and hotel, but Adams declined and went home by other means. Air Canada called her over the two following days to hear her experience and apologize.
Tiffany Adams recounts her experience on the plane. (Youtube/Inside Edition)
Adams’ said her harrowing incident has resulted in her “not handling [her] emotions very well,” experiencing “reoccurring night terrors,” and “waking up anxious and afraid [she is] locked up someplace dark.” (RELATED: A Cleaning Crew Discovered An Abandoned Fetus Shoved In The Plane’s Toilet)
In order to find some solace, Adams said she is seeking someone with a similar experience.
“Please share if you know of anyone who has gone through this I don’t like feeling so alone,” she said in her Facebook post, adding she will “welcome coping advice or techniques to calm my nerves.”
Air Canada confirmed the incident to the Associated Press.
“This customer was left on our aircraft after the flight,” a spokesperson for the airline told AP.
In 2010, a woman who was abandoned after falling asleep on a flight to Philadelphia sued the airline for false imprisonment.