It was a travel nightmare that left more than 100 passengers, including Ottawa residents, stranded in Costa Rica this week.
A WestJet flight scheduled to take off from Liberia, Costa Rica to Toronto on Saturday remained on the airport tarmac for five hours before being canceled entirely.
The incident left dozens of people without shelter or food, some with babies and wheelchairs.
For one Ottawa family, the trip was a nightmare after a much-needed getaway over the holidays.
“My husband is a neurosurgeon and I am a nurse practitioner. We don’t go out very often,” said Margarita Sachs, who was traveling with her husband and teenage twins. “Going on vacation was a big deal.”
The travel headache began with a routine boarding experience at the Liberia airport for their WestJet flight, but there were red flags as soon as they boarded.
“The pilot informed us that there was a delay due to his exact words, a ‘passport verification issue’ for one of the crew,” said Adam Sachs, who says he was stranded in Costa Rica for more than 24 hours.
“We sat on the tarmac for two hours waiting for it to be resolved. Meanwhile, the total time we spent on the tarmac and the plane was about five hours.”
Sachs says that was just the beginning of the delays.
“We were notified that there is debris on the runway and we have to wait for the debris to be removed. We don’t know how long it will be,” Sachs said.
“And then, in a strange twist, some customs agents or police came on the plane and informed us that they had to search rows 12 to 14 for security reasons.”
Sachs says that after hours of waiting on the tarmac without any proper food service, the family was upset when the pilot showed up with another message.
“The pilot came back up and simply said, ‘my duty hours are up and I’m afraid we won’t be flying tonight,'” he said. “The pilot said, ‘You’ll have to get off the plane, go through customs, and you’ll be greeted by a WestJet employee.'”
But Sachs says there was no representative when they got off the plane.
They also couldn’t find a nearby hotel and ended up spending $1,500 a night at a resort that was an hour and a half from the airport. They also had to pay for round-trip transportation while the airline rebooked their flight for the next day.
“Take notes. Record announcements with your phone and, once you return to Canada to pay the expenses incurred, you can file a claim with the airline and ask them for details and possibly even documents about what really happened. You have the right to know because your rights depends on the reason for the delay,” said Gabor Lukács, president of Air Passenger Rights, a passenger advocacy group.
WestJet apologizes for the disruption and says the initial delay was due to customs issues.
“We sincerely apologize to guests traveling on WS2171 for the inconvenience they experienced on their recent journey from Liberia to Toronto. We can confirm that WS2171 was initially delayed on Saturday, December 28 by customs,” the airline said in a statement to CTVNews. Ottawa.
“After departure, the runway was closed due to unforeseen damage, forcing the flight to return to the gate. The runway has now been reopened and a recovery flight has been added, departing today at 4 pm for passengers who were scheduled to fly yesterday on WS2171.”
Lukács says it is the carrier’s responsibility if there are problems with a crew member’s documents, but not if they are related to local customs controls.
The family was rebooked on a flight to Toronto the day after their original flight, but the second leg of their trip to Ottawa isn’t until Monday night, causing an even longer delay.
“I would like to be reimbursed for the hotel for the trip and I would like to be put on a plane with another airline to get us home sooner,” Sachs said.
“Also, if we have to stay in Toronto tomorrow night, I’d like you to pay for the hotel in Toronto.”
