Flight AC051 had left Delhi shortly after midnight local time. When Pant’s symptoms started seven hours later, it was over Europe. Pande says she pleaded with the cabin crew to divert the plane and land in order to get her father to a hospital.
Instead, the flight stayed on course for nine more hours, travelling over Ireland, across the Atlantic Ocean and Eastern Canada before touching ground in Montreal. Paramedics were waiting — but Pant died as they worked on him.
“I was very hysterical,” said Pande. “My mind was gone at this point.”
Her father was officially pronounced dead at a Montreal hospital from a “presumed infarction” — dead heart tissue.
Two months later, Pande says the piercing grief has given way to anger.
“He was at the mercy of the pilot and Air Canada people,” she told Go Public. “They were inhumane and callous.”
Murdered via neglegence. Choosing to finish the flight on time over someone’s life should be despicable to anyone with a fragment of a soul left.
There are the mandated penalties for late arrivals. Diverting could result in a 24h delay for ~250 passengers which could mean a 250k fine
Except despite all the BS reasons AC says flights are outside of their control, this one is definitely outside their control.
So that doesn’t hold.I wonder what their decision was based on.
Cost to divert was estimated at $900,000 in the article. Decision was based for the air medical contractor in the article.
One improvement I can immediately see, is to put the ground medical team in contact directly with the head flight attendant, rather than having communications filtered by the pilot. Each rebroadcast reduces communication accuracy.
Looks like we’re getting another lawsuit on the value of a life.
How cheap are they today?
That’s it. Nationalize Air Canada. We have had it with their self serving doctrine.
Ah, I see the airline has moved on from simply degrading disabled people to murdering them. So much more efficient!
I did notice in this article they used a wheelchair to move them to the washroom. So maybe they learned for the last one? Or more likely just different kit for different flights.
Next time just threaten to blow up the plane and pretend you have a bomb in your suitcase ready to blow if they don’t land immediately.
They’ll care so much about saving their property that they’ll definitely land.
