‘Nobody could get answers’: Traveller spends more than 12 hours at Toronto Pearson airport on day of plane crash

CP24’s Courtney Heels speaks with passenger rights advocate Gabor Lukacs about what travellers are entitled to.

Joel Kennedy spent more than 12 hours at Toronto Pearson International Airport on Monday as one of many travellers who found themselves temporarily stranded in the wake of the Delta Air Lines plane crash.

The 38-year-old from Saskatoon was headed to Omaha, Nebraska for a business trip, with stopovers in Toronto and Detroit. Kennedy touched down at Pearson just before 9:30 a.m. on Monday.

His 1:20 p.m. flight to Detroit, through Delta Airlines, was already delayed before the accident happened. A text from the airline, reviewed by CTV News Toronto, cited “unforeseen maintenance” on the incoming route as the reason for the delay.

Then at 2:15 p.m., the Endeavor flight carrying 76 passengers and four crew members landed at the Toronto airport tarmac, toppling over belly up as the aircraft caught fire.

The accident prompted the suspension of all flights into and out of Pearson for nearly three hours and the diversion of dozens of planes that were in the air at the time headed for the Toronto airport.

“All of a sudden, I heard on the P.A. system (that) all flights have been suspended at this time and we will update you as further information becomes available,” Kennedy said, adding he had no idea at that time that a serious accident had just occurred.

Kennedy said that after the announcement he noticed a “dramatic” change in the air at the airport, where other fliers were “getting antsy,” rushing to places. Passengers on a flight destined for Cancun disembarked the plane, Kennedy recounted, flooding the gate with disgruntled fliers.

He then received a text that his flight to Detroit had been cancelled.

“They deplaned a plethora of different aircraft across the airport, and you could see the tension and the worry and the fear in a lot of people,” Kennedy said. It felt like the crowded room of a concert, Kennedy said, with everyone inside the airport standing shoulder-to-shoulder.

“It was busy and nobody could get any answers.”

Instead, Kennedy said that travellers were essentially playing a game of broken telephone with one another in which they would share social media posts and news articles about the fiery crash.

“It became somewhat of an instant society, like everybody knew one another because we were just sharing information from one person to the next,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy’s business trip was now, understandably, thwarted, prompting him to cancel his scheduled meetings as he was no longer able to make them in time. Instead, Kennedy sought to go home to Saskatoon with WestJet—the carrier that brought him to Toronto in the first place.

“There was a lot of back-and-forth, a good half-an-hour of discussion with WestJet before I finally was able to remind them that this was an instance that out was of our control,” Kennedy said. “I was basically stranded in Toronto, so they would have to get me home, and they eventually did the right thing.”

That WestJet flight, initially scheduled to leave at 10:30 p.m. was delayed to 10 minutes past midnight, and Kennedy said he didn’t get back home until after 4 a.m. CTV News Toronto contacted WestJet for comment but did not hear an immediate response.

Kennedy said he couldn’t help but think of what just happened to those Delta Airline passengers as he boarded his plane that very same day.

“Is it going to happen to me? Is this the same model? Is this the CRJ-900 I’m on? What is going on?” Kennedy question. “It really made me reflect on the work-life balance that people need to have and it’s a stark reminder of how quickly circumstances can chance, and just reinforces the importance of staying aware of our surroundings and appreciating the present moment.”

What are airlines required to do for passengers whose flights are delayed or cancelled by this crash?

Kennedy was one of countless individuals who had their travel plans derailed on Monday following the crash, with airport officials previously saying that 462 of 1,006 scheduled flights were ultimately cancelled.

The delays have continued due to the closure of two runways for the ongoing investigation into the crash and officials have warned that it could still take days for airport operations to return to normal.

Gabor Lukacs, president of Air Passenger Rights and advocate for passenger rights, tells CP24 that the most important thing for impacted travellers to do is to document what they see and what they are being told.

“When your flight is cancelled, and let’s assume for the sake of argument that this is genuinely weather or genuinely due to the crash or it’s outside of the carrier’s control, the airline has to rebook you on its own or its partner airlines to depart within 48 hours of the original departure time,” Lukacs said.

“If they are unable to do so, then they have to rebook you on the next available flight on any airline, including competitors.”

If an airline fails to do this—something Lukacs says often happens—document it, don’t seek an immediate refund.

“That would terminate your right to alternate transportation, but rather buy a ticket on a competitor and then later submit the bill to the original airline and make them pay for it because they failed to rebook you as required by law,” Lukacs said.