Questions about faking a heart attack! (Air Transat Incident)

Factual Questions
1

So all over the news here is a frightening story of people left on a plane for hours with no water, food, lights or air conditioning, sitting on the runway, the airline refusing to let them deplane.

It got so awful people started calling 911. Who responded, bringing in bottled water. But everyone contacted, police, emerg services, the airport management etc, all claimed they could do nothing, it’s the airline’s call to make. And they just left them there to suffer. Needless to say they were fuming when they finally got free. And did not hesitate to righteously vent on social media.

The airline claimed the airport was swamped with diverted flights and had no jetways or stairs available. The airport denies this saying they were ready and able to accommodate the deplaning but the airline never requested it!

Here’s my question, (sorry it took so long.) If one of those passengers had played like they were having a heart attack like episode, I assume the airline would have had no choice but to get help and get that person off the plane regardless, am I right?

Now, assuming all of that happens, and then they discover the patient’s distress is just that and not a heart attack, do they have any recourse against the passenger? I’m going to say if the patient maintains the ruse nothing untoward will come to pass. But what if, once off the plane, they are all, “Ha! Thanks for getting me off the plane! I’m going now!”, and they refuse all further intervention? Can they be charged with anything?

Also, what would happen if a dozen or more people on the plane suddenly faked heart attacks? Does the airline have the choice of refusing to call for help? Or are their hands tied and they MUST respond regardless?

(Just curious, not planning to fake any heart attacks, I promise!)

2

Here is a link for anyone wanting to see the detail.

I think it would be pretty selfish to fake a heart attack as it might delay the flight even more.

3

Delay what flight? The flight was over.

ETA: :wink:

4

How did the police and paramedics get on the plane if there were no jetways or stairs available?

5

Don’t know about the answer to the OP, but I’d be interested in seeing if there could be a class action by the passengers for the tort of false imprisonment.

6

Threw the bottles of water from ground level to an open door?

7

The article has video of the responders actually on the plane.

8

Ladder? Cherry picker?

9

Getting across the tarmac safely is very different matter from getting off the plane. Just deplaning a bunch of civilians into the ground traffic would be insanely dangerous.

What they needed was a gate. It’s Ground Control that was failing here. There came a point where the airport was accepting diverted flights based upon runway availability, without consideration to the gridlock on the ground and at the gating lineup.

Either the airport management is at fault, or the Airline wasn’t doing enough to communicate the issue. I suspect the airport was charging out the wazoo for diverted gate space, and the airline was waiting for one of their cheaper, contracted gates to be free. But I’m just guessing.

10

Actually, upon review it was the airline’s decision. The flight had not reached it’s destination, but was grounded waiting for a storm to clear. The airport could have handled them, but the airline would have had to put them all through customs and then waited to get them all back aboard before continuing.

Worse than that, they turned off the A/C and lights “because they were low on fuel.” I can’t think of any reason they couldn’t have refueled in order to at least keep the passengers comfortable. If they were that low, there’s no way they were taking off again without refueling.

11

I don’t understand this part. Every airport that I’ve flown into internationally, including in the US, has numerous spaces that passengers could wait in before going through customs. Why can’t they be offloaded and wait there?

12

I think it was a money call by air transat, but there should be a protocol that the port authority orders the pax to be deplaned to a pre authorised quarantine zone. As it is, the port authority states that its the airlines call.

13

All interesting comments but I’ve asked several people and am still not hearing any answers.

If a passenger appeared to be having a heart incident, do they have to respond?

If that person recovers or declines further assistance, once off the plane, can the airline do anything to them?

What would they have done if a dozen people, on that flight, suddenly were all claiming heart issues? What if it was two dozen people? Or more? Could they just choose to ignore them?

14

Cost, perhaps? And by “low on fuel” they may mean “if we don’t shut down the engines now, we won’t have enough fuel left to fly to our final destination.”

15

You always have enough fuel to fly to your final destination.

Rather unfortunate wording there. :smiley:

16

Being selfish isn’t bad. People are selfish all the time. IMHO…but I realise this is GQ.

17

Of course they have to respond – flights have been diverted to unscheduled landings for just such reasons.

On the second part, the person faking the heart attack had better keep up the ruse because I can see serious trouble ahead for them if the claim was discovered to be fake. Aside from any specific air transport regulations that they might be afoul of, see for instance 430(1) parts “c” and “d” of the Criminal Code.

18

That’s Canadian law. Are they in Canada yet, having not cleared customs?

19

The article didn’t state, but airport commissary trucks have hydraulic scissor lifts that raise the storage compartment of the truck to the level of the cabin door.

It’s quite possible to get water to the passengers that way. The truck would already have had cases of bottled water on it.

20

But please do elaborate in IMHO section, cowardsflight, because this raises about one thousand questions I would like to see the answers to.