Air Canada flight had to abort landing and the explanation is hilarious (VIDEO)
Airlines take that order to have tray tables and seats returned to their upright position quite seriously, and if the cabin isn’t properly set for landing, things can go awry pretty quickly.
One Toronto-bound flight was delayed for a somewhat ridiculous reason last month, when Air Canada flight 1199 was forced to abort a landing, all because of a passenger’s urge to use the bathroom at the most inconvenient time possible.
On March 23, flight ACA1199 from Miami International Airport to Toronto Pearson International Airport — an Airbus A220-300 aircraft with a capacity of 137 passengers — was on final approach to Pearson, when someone’s need to attend the lavatory held up the arrival of an entire planeload of passengers.
An account of the failed landing was shared on YouTube by Real ATC, a channel offering a behind-the-scenes look into the exchanges between air traffic controllers and pilots.
A controller in the Pearson control tower addresses the aircraft on approach, telling pilots, “Air Canada 1199, you’re cleared to land [at runway] 24L, wind is 210 at 15.”
But instead of landing the plane, the airline pilot replies to the tower, “Going around, Air Canada 1199,” accompanied by a radar visual of the plane overflying the runway.
The tower then provides a new heading and asks the pilot if they are in need of assistance after the aborted landing. The pilot turns down the offer, explaining, “No, we had a passenger that ran into the toilet on final [approach], so can’t land with that.”
“It happens once in a while,” replies the air traffic controller, telling the pilot, “they’ll bring you back around.”
“Best of luck the second time,” says the air traffic controller, missing a prime opportunity to make a “number two” joke.
The video on YouTube has tens of thousands of views and hundreds of likes as of writing, as well as over 200 comments on the unfortunate bathroom mishap.
“The real gold in this video is the wordless exclamations of frustration just before the pilot explains and the controller offers condolences,” reads one comment.
Another commenter ran some numbers in an attempt to determine how much this passenger’s bathroom visit cost the airline.
“I couldn’t find the hourly cost to run an A220 but an A319 is apx $7000 USD / hour so assuming an extra 10 mins in the air thanks to bathroom break would be $1166 USD or $1600 CAD.”
Regardless of what it cost the airline, you can be certain this passenger was given a stern talking-to for throwing off the flight’s arrival time and airport operations — even if just for a few minutes.
Follow Channels and Categories