Updated: Sun Mar. 09 2008 20:14:48
ctvottawa.ca
There were plenty of tired and angry customers at the Ottawa International Airport Sunday as two Cubana flights from Cuba bound for Montreal were forced to land in Ottawa because of the storm.
But rather than joining other stranded passengers on cots in the airport, passengers were forced to stay in the plane all night with no food, water or washroom facilities.
"On the landing strip, we were kept there for 12 hours and we were kept there with no food, no water. There were no bathrooms, they were not working anymore," said Pierre Gaudreau, after he was finally let off the plane. Passengers say they had to resort to calling 911 for help.
"The toilets were not working. We asked for drinks and water. We had to force them to give us something after so many hours on the plane," said Marco Hernandez, who was also on the flight.
Passengers then faced a new challenge of having to find a way to Montreal.
The reasons for keeping the passengers on the flight remains a mystery as Cubana was unavailable for comment.
Passengers speculated that it was because Cubana does not usually fly out of Ottawa and didn't have the staff to disembark passengers and didn't want to pay for local crew.
The airport authority said the situation was out of their hands.
"That's something they're going to have to discuss with their airline. That's not a decision for the airport - whether to unload or not. That's entirely the airline's decision," said Krista Kealey, spokesperson of the Ottawa Airport Authority.
As of 5 p.m., the two planes were still sitting at the Ottawa airport and the passengers had been put on buses to drive them home to Montreal.
Montreal Passengers who were supposed to take those planes to Cuba as well as the Cubana crew, on the other hand, were still waiting in Montreal for their flight. The planes were still on the Ottawa tarmac.
With a report from CTV's Natalie
davfitz Wrote:Updated: Sun Mar. 09 2008 20:14:48
ctvottawa.ca
There were plenty of tired and angry customers at the Ottawa International Airport Sunday as two Cubana flights from Cuba bound for Montreal were forced to land in Ottawa because of the storm.
But rather than joining other stranded passengers on cots in the airport, passengers were forced to stay in the plane all night with no food, water or washroom facilities.
"On the landing strip, we were kept there for 12 hours and we were kept there with no food, no water. There were no bathrooms, they were not working anymore," said Pierre Gaudreau, after he was finally let off the plane. Passengers say they had to resort to calling 911 for help.
"The toilets were not working. We asked for drinks and water. We had to force them to give us something after so many hours on the plane," said Marco Hernandez, who was also on the flight.
Passengers then faced a new challenge of having to find a way to Montreal.
The reasons for keeping the passengers on the flight remains a mystery as Cubana was unavailable for comment.
Passengers speculated that it was because Cubana does not usually fly out of Ottawa and didn't have the staff to disembark passengers and didn't want to pay for local crew.
The airport authority said the situation was out of their hands.
"That's something they're going to have to discuss with their airline. That's not a decision for the airport - whether to unload or not. That's entirely the airline's decision," said Krista Kealey, spokesperson of the Ottawa Airport Authority.
As of 5 p.m., the two planes were still sitting at the Ottawa airport and the passengers had been put on buses to drive them home to Montreal.
Montreal Passengers who were supposed to take those planes to Cuba as well as the Cubana crew, on the other hand, were still waiting in Montreal for their flight. The planes were still on the Ottawa tarmac.
With a report from CTV's Natalie
To be totally fair, this kind of stuff happens to all airlines at one time or another. Sometimes, it is just "one of those days".
AK
I agree it can happen to any airline but...................
There ain't NO WAY I would consider getting on a Cubana plane.
I guess passengers didn't have a "libreta"....
Fatal Events Since 1970 for Cubana
The following events are those involving at least one passenger death where the aircraft flight had a direct or indirect role. Excluded would be events where the only passengers killed were stowaways, hijackers, or saboteurs.
6 October 1976; Cubana DC8-40; near Barbados: Shortly after departing Barbados, a bomb exploded in the rear of the aircraft and started an uncontrollable fire. During the air turn back, the crew was apparently incapacitated by the smoke and fumes and lost control of the aircraft. All 15 crew members and 58 passengers were killed.
19 January 1985; Cubana Ilyushin 18D; near Havana, Cuba: The aircraft had just departed and was executing a procedure turn when the aircraft apparently had an engine failure, lost control, and spiraled into the ground. All eight crew members and 33 passengers were killed.
3 September 1989; Cubana Ilyushin 62M; near Havana, Cuba: Shortly after takeoff, the aircraft crashed into a community about 1.5 miles (2 km) from the airport. The takeoff was performed at night in gusting winds and heavy rain from local thunderstorms. All 11 crew members and 115 passengers were killed. Also killed were 14 people on the ground.
24 October 1990; Cubana Yak 40; near Santiago de Cuba, Cuba: During the approach phase of the third landing attempt, the aircraft struck a high plateau about five miles (eight km) from the airport. The crash occurred at night under rainy conditions. Two of the four crew members and nine of the 27 passengers were killed. The Civil Aviation Institute of Cuba stated that the accident was caused by the flight crew attempting to execute a visual approach under instrument flight rules (IFR) conditions.
11 July 1997; Cubana Antonov 24; near Santiago de Cuba, Cuba: The aircraft crashed into the sea about three minutes after takeoff on a night flight to Havana. All five crew members and 39 passengers were killed.
29 August 1998; Cubana Tupolev 154M; Quito, Equador: After two other attempted takeoffs, the aircraft crashed during its third takeoff attempt for a flight to Guayaquil. The aircraft came down in a neighborhood near the airport. All 14 crew members and 57 of the 76 passengers were killed. Ten persons on the ground were also killed.
21 December 1999; Cubana DC10-30; Guatemala City, Guatemala: The aircraft overran the wet runway and came to rest in a residential neighborhood adjacent to the airport. Eight of the 18 crew members and nine of the 296 passengers on the chartered flight were killed, as were nine people in the neighborhood.
25 December 1999; Cubana Yak42; near Valencia, Venezuela: The aircraft was approaching Valencia after a flight from Havana when the aircraft struck high ground about 10 miles (16 km) southeast of Valencia. All 12 crew members 10 passengers were killed.
Cubana is always a crap shoot. Three weeks ago they left the luggage of about 40 peoples stuff back in Cancun. Then they had one little old lady writing down what every body was missing. This took two hours. The everybody had to return to the airport the next evening to pick it up. It's part of going to Cuba I guess.
pblee Wrote:It's part of going to Cuba I guess.
No, it's just part of using the Cuban systema. That's why I use Mexicana or Copa. I have never had any problems with either of them.
Sancho Wrote:pblee Wrote:It's part of going to Cuba I guess.
No, it's just part of using the Cuban systema. That's why I use Mexicana or Copa. I have never had any problems with either of them.
Then why even go?
pblee Wrote:Sancho Wrote:pblee Wrote:It's part of going to Cuba I guess.
No, it's just part of using the Cuban systema. That's why I use Mexicana or Copa. I have never had any problems with either of them.
Then why even go?
Some people have no choice in going because they have immediate family there.
Others, just well....whatever........
You always have a choice and, by the way,.....it's a beautiful place
"You always have a choice and, by the way,.....it's a beautiful place"
A nice place: you mean the tarmac at YOW?
I had beers in Havana with a guy who was training Cubana pilots when they were leasing an airbus back in 2004. He said they were competent operators - always obeyed orders and asked for permission.
So the idea that they would seriously inconvenience passengers because they were afraid/couldn't get authorization to spend money to debark the passengers sounds entirely plausible to me.
I've flown them about 10 times I guess and I'd get on again. I used to jump and Cubana's way better than flying at 500' in a C-130 .
pblee Wrote:You always have a choice and, by the way,.....it's a beautiful place
You always have the choice to avoid your family.
Mercy Wrote:pblee Wrote:You always have a choice and, by the way,.....it's a beautiful place
You always have the choice to avoid your family.
that's kind of sad