Two flyers kicked off Air Canada plane after objecting to puke-stained seats
![Two flyers kicked off Air Canada plane after objecting to puke-stained seats](https://dpdajlq3ew794.cloudfront.net/20230104131601/air-canada-vancouver-international-airport-yvr-f.jpg?format=auto&width=1920)
An Air Canada flyer says two women were removed from her flight after complaining about vomit stains and stench in their seating area.
Susan Benson was a passenger on an Air Canada flight AC 1706 travelling from Las Vegas to Montreal on August 26.
She told Daily Hive she was heading back to her home province of New Brunswick after enjoying Adele’s live concert in Las Vegas.
However, what was supposed to be a five-hour flight turned into a disaster for the passengers sitting in front of her.
Benson took to Facebook to document the incident.
She said she noticed the passengers in front of her — two women and a man — were “struggling to get seated.” Benson told Daily Hive that the women were travelling together, and their final destination was a European city. The man was alone, and they were all seated in the same row.
“There was a bit of a foul smell, but we didn’t know at first what the problem was,” she wrote.
The passenger in front of Benson allegedly told her that “she couldn’t sit down as someone had vomited in her seat on the previous flight, and it was still wet, and there was still vomit residue on her seat area and seatbelt.”
“Air Canada attempted to do a quick cleanup before boarding but clearly wasn’t able to do a thorough clean,” explained Benson in her Facebook post.
Benson said the flight attendants tried to mask the smell by “placing coffee grounds in the seat pouches and spraying perfume,” but those measures did little to help.
Moreover, the passengers assigned to the row were told they could not be moved to other seats despite their seats still wet with vomit residue.
Benson said the passengers told the flight attendant that “they couldn’t possibly be expected to sit in vomit for five hours.” The parties continued to “argue back and forth” for several minutes.
The flight attendant brought over her supervisor, who explained to the passengers that the flight was full and they could not move seats.
Benson said the passengers asked for blankets and extra wipes as they had no choice but to sit in their assigned seats.
But the situation did not end there. Benson said that the pilot approached the two women just as the passengers were trying to settle into the vomit-stained seats.
Benson said the pilot informed them “that they had two choices: They could leave the plane on their own accord and organize flights on their own dime, or they would be escorted off the plane by security and placed on a no-fly list!”
The women asked the pilot what they did wrong, and Benson said they were told they were rude to the flight attendant.
Benson and her fellow passengers were stunned. She said the women were “upset but firm,” but not rude to the airplane staff.
Another passenger tried to step in and defend the women, telling the pilot they did nothing wrong and were rightfully frustrated over having to sit in seats where someone had vomited.
The pilot walked away, and shortly after, security approached the women and escorted them off the plane, according to Benson.
She said that although she does not know if the women were placed on a no-fly list, she cannot stop thinking about the incident, which made her disappointed in Air Canada.
Benson told us the entire ordeal delayed the flight by about 45 minutes.
“I don’t blame the entire industry over this incident, but I definitely feel the flight attendants and the pilot handled the situation wrong,” Benson told Daily Hive.
“Those seats should never [have] been occupied. It should have been dealt with prior to boarding when they realized they hadn’t been cleaned. They tried to cover it up and hope it was good enough.”
Daily Hive contacted Air Canada about the incident. The airline did not deny anything Benson alleged and implied confirmation of the events.
“We are reviewing this serious matter, and we will be following up with the customers directly as our operating procedures were not followed correctly in this instance,” an Air Canada representative told us.
“We will also be apologizing to these customers as they clearly did not receive the standard of care to which they were entitled.”