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August 04, 2005
You call this a cappuccino?
I'm not saying things went as smoothly for the evacuated passengers as they could have, or that there aren't lessons to be learned from the Air France crash about handling victims of such events in the future, but the Post today reported what I thought was an astonishing amount of whinging from people whose ears had just been grazed by flaming death. There was cold water instead of hot tea. The passengers had to wait 30 minutes on a bus that was too cold. "It was so unorganized," complained one passenger.
Well the thing is, it was a plane crash. They don't happen every day around here. I think anyone who finds himself jumping ten feet out of a burning Airbus into a ravine in the pouring rain should expect chaos to rule his life for a little while — an hour at the very least. Pearson's preparedness is focused on getting people out of crippled airplanes alive. The tea, hotel rooms and tearful reunifications can wait, and strike me as more the airline's domain than the airport's. (Not that the airport shouldn't help, and I wouldn't expect Pearson to be at the top of the list.) Judging by what I've heard about the service on Air France, yesterday's stories sound about right.
On another note, while there's no specific reason to believe that a low-cost carrier's crew wouldn't have executed a similarly swift evacuation, Air Canada's matronly flight attendants, despite their occasional customer-service hiccups, have always instilled me with confidence. I'm not a particularly nervous flyer, but landings have me gripping the armrests a little tighter. At times like those I want cool professionals in the jumpseats, not stunning 18-year-old girls saving up for uni (Easyjet), off-duty Outriders putting the finishing touches on their new "Welcome to Calgary" song (Westjet), or well-meaning ESL students desperately trying to meet their onboard sales quotas while on final approach (Ryanair).
Posted by Chris Selley at August 4, 2005 10:13 PM
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Comments
So does this mean we finally have to forgive Big Red for killing Stan Rogers?
Posted by: Colby Cosh at August 5, 2005 08:29 AM