Passengers in hours-long Air Transat tarmac delays describe harrowing conditions

Passengers trapped aboard two Air Transat jets described hours on end of sweltering heat, a lack of water and the stench of vomit earlier this summer as a federal agency began hearings Wednesday into how their ordeal happened in the first place.

Witnesses described seeing flight attendants outside on the Ottawa tarmac taking selfies alongside one stranded plane amid widespread confusion over the July 31 delays - six hours in one case, five in the other - as well as finger-pointing afterward between the airline and airport officials in the national capital.

One by one, passengers told members of the Canadian Transportation Agency, the agency investigating the incidents, that they would have given anything to be allowed off the planes, even if only to face further delays or long drives home. “Air Transat said that it’s the airport of Ottawa, and Ottawa airport says it is Air Transat who didn’t ask for help,” said Blaise Pascal Irutingabo, one of the passengers wxho endured trying conditions during a sixhour delay.

“As a passenger, we don’t know who to blame or who to talk to about what happened.”

They described feeling treated like cargo by the airline, rather than as human beings, and accused the carrier of being more concerned about getting the planes in the air than it was about the health and safety of its customers.

“There was no relief,” passenger Alan Abraham told the panel. “I felt like we were luggage; they had to get us to Montreal no matter what. They didn’t care what condition we were in.”

Witnesses expressed frustration at both the airline and the airport, saying they just want to know who should be held responsible.