Dozens of people were shuttle bussed to the Inn of Waterloo early Sunday morning after a scary situation on Pearson’s tarmac.
According to Peel Police, an outbound LOT Polish Airlines plane and an inbound Air Canada flight touched wings at the gate around 10:20 p.m. Saturday.
The Air Canada flight had arrived from Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, and was parking when the incident occurred.
All passengers disembarked the planes safely and no injuries were reported.
People on board the outbound polish flight managed to take photos out of the window.
“I thought someone's suitcase fell out of the overhead bin, then I looked out my window and saw the wing,” said Ari Silecky, a passenger on the LOT airplane.
The incident happened during the boarding of the LOT plane which meant those already on the airplane were taken back to the terminal and those attempting to board where turned around.
Passengers said once back in the airport, there was a lot of confusion.
Reza Hadisi was waiting to board the plane when the incident occurred.
“We didn’t hear anything, but we just saw firefighters rushing in. They told us to go back to the check-in area then there was chaos,” Hadisi said on Sunday morning from the hotel in Waterloo.
“Around 4 a.m. they got us busses and it took an hour to get here. We’ve been waiting for shuttles to take us back,” he added.
Some passengers arrived to the hotel in Waterloo around 5:45 a.m. Sunday, after they said their shuttle bus got lost along the way.
They were allegedly told that local hotels in Toronto and the GTA were all booked due to a number of events in the city, including Caribana.
Passengers told CTV the hotel was not prepared for their arrival, even asking them to put down their credit cards for a deposit. The people said they were told that LOT would deal with accommodations.
Many people said they were left to deal with re-booking themselves leaving many without a way of getting to their final destinations.
Pierre Payette, Vice President of Operations for Toronto, Swissport Canada Handling Inc., released the following statement on Sunday afternoon:
“I can confirm that on August 5 an incident occurred at Pearson Airport when an Air Canada flight that was arriving at its gate collided with a plane that was properly parked at the adjacent gate. Swissport provides service to the airline that was parked. The company does not provide service to Air Canada. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) advised that the taxying Air Canada plane hit the stationary plane, which at the time, was being loaded by a very experienced Swissport crew. Thankfully, no injuries were reported and an investigation is underway. We would like the reassure travellers that anyone working for or on behalf of Swissport receives standardized safety and job specific training. We regret that the union is using this incident to suggest otherwise and are confident that the TSB investigation will demonstrate that our staff was operating according to procedure.”
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada is investigating.
With reporting from CTV Kitchener's Brandon Rowe and The Canadian Press
