Toronto upset at Porter Airlines after fiasco in Boston
Porter is the subject of so much online hate this morning as a story spreads about one of the airline's employees and some customers holding camera phones.
Passengers on a Toronto-bound Porter Airlines flight say they were stranded in Boston on Friday evening after issues with a luggage door delayed the plane's takeoff.
Customers sat on the tarmac for two hours, according to Global News, before the airline brought them back inside to a terminal building.
"When it passed 10 o'clock apparently the crew couldn't fly anymore," said Toronto resident Kira Wegler to Global. "Because … in their words, they would turn into pumpkins."
@porterairlines Holy hell! Was the Porter employee in Boston fired for threatening passengers with arrest for video-taping (which is NOT illegal) their terrible customer service? I ask because an apology just doesn't seem to cut it! https://t.co/pzPaJKH1g1
— Peg Johnson (@PegEJohnson) January 9, 2018
The passengers say that they had to line up and learn, one by one, that their flight had been cancelled. An overhead PA system was apparently broken.
Those in the back of the line were frustrated, as they didn't know what was going on, and some pulled out their phones to start recording what they interpreted as bad service.
"At that point, the personnel came from behind the desk and started threatening us to call the police if we don't delete the videos off of our phones and show evidence that it's gone from our trash bin," said Wegler.
Other passengers who spoke to Global called the act "very aggressive" and "appalling."
Prime example of abuse of passengers by airline employees.
— Air Passenger Rights (@AirPassRightsCA) January 9, 2018
This must must stop. Canadians deserve better. #PassengerRightts https://t.co/3OkabVUpVq
As it turns out, the Porter employee in question had no legal or regulatory power to stop passengers from filming – let alone to demand they delete anything on their personal devices.
"In this particular case, there was a misunderstanding by the team member involved that taking video at this particular airport beyond the security checkpoint was not permitted," said a Porter Airlines spokesperson on Monday.
"We do not have any policy that would prevent people from taking video at airports."
Passengers on the cancelled flight were finally flown home on Monday afternoon. They were compensated for three days worth of hotels and food, but nothing else.
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