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Weary Travellers Frustrated By Delays Caused By Fiery Air France Crash Landing

Posted on: Wednesday, 3 August 2005, 15:00 CDT

TORONTO (CP) - It was a weary day for travellers at Canada's biggest airport the day after an Air France passenger jet skidded off a runway in a fiery crash, cancelling and delaying dozens of flights at Pearson International airport.

It wasn't hard to find ticket-holders sleeping on benches as they waited hours for flights home.

Some complained of being stranded more than 24 hours, left unsure when they could return home after flights were pushed back almost immediately after Tuesday's accident.

The flood of delays and cancellations left carriers scrambling to accommodate passengers.

Confusion was rampant, making for extremely long lineups to get to ticket counters for more information.

For some passengers, it's been a long, arduous journey home.

"Mine is a long, long story," said a fatigued Bill Noseworthy of Mount Pearl, Nfld.

Noseworthy was returning to the Rock following a slow-pitch tournament in Niagara Falls. He was supposed to leave at 6:15 ET Tuesday.

The flight was listed as delayed until about 8:30, when it was cancelled. Ten minutes later, Noseworthy said his flight was switched. Then that too was cancelled.

Then he lost his luggage, and CanJet wouldn't let him fly home on another flight until his bags were recovered. The luggage was finally found at 1 a.m., but the earliest Noseworthy can fly home is now Thursday at 9:15 p.m.

"I'll have been here at the airport for three days," the 57-year-old snarled.

While he understood the circumstances behind the delays, he was frustrated by the mixed information he was receiving from his airline.

"I've got no problem if there was crash out there on the runway. I've got no problem if there was bad weather. That stuff happens," he said.

"But when you go to supervisor after supervisor and staff member to staff member giving you false and misleading information, it's nothing but frustrating."

"I'm totally exhausted."

At least Noseworthy didn't have children waiting with him. Carleen Banton of Brampton, Ont. made it to the airport Wednesday morning at 5 a.m., preparing to send her three kids - aged 10, 12 and 15 - on a flight to Orlando, Fla., to see relatives.

Hours later, she sat slumped on a waiting room bench as her kids struggled to stay awake before a flight rescheduled for early Wednesday evening.

"Now we're stuck here all day until quarter to six, I guess. They're frustrated," Banton said.

She was thankful Skyservice gave her coupons so she could feed her kids breakfast. But that won't cover their hunger pains over the day.

"It's so expensive here to buy food. . .I can't afford to feed them all day," she sighed.

The Greater Toronto Airports Authority said they expected to resume all flights and clear most of the backlog by Wednesday evening.

The agency had to cancel 540 flights between noon and 8 p.m. Tuesday as torrential rains and lightning bore down on the airport. By Wednesday afternoon, three of the airport's five runways had reopened.

Banton wished she had received more information about her flight rescheduling before arriving so early at the airport. She called a hotline number before she left to no avail.

"We tried calling, but we couldn't get through," she said. "There were so many people calling."

Wiping sleep from her eyes was Elaine Steele of Winnipeg, who was supposed to fly out late Tuesday night and didn't leave the airport, afraid that if she left, she wouldn't make it back in time to fly home.

"So by the time we leave today, it will have been 26 hours that we've been waiting. I'm frustrated. And very tired."

Steele said Tuesday's incident shook her up and she was grateful she wasn't on the Air France flight.

Others were also counting their blessings.

Desmond Mooney of Dublin felt he had the luck of the Irish with him when his planed landed in Toronto on Monday - at about the same time as the Tuesday crash, and in similar stormy weather.

Mooney said his plane diverted around Lake Simcoe before landing 20 minutes later at Pearson after the bad weather subsided.

He was back at the airport Wednesday, kissing goodbye to his Toronto cousin, Linda Jackson, as he prepared to fly out to Calgary to visit more relatives.

"I was saying a few prayers, just thanking God that it wasn't me, that I wasn't landing yesterday," Mooney said.

"You never know just say how lucky you are," Jackson chimed in.

He's continuing on with his journey, albeit a bit nervously.

"It didn't inspire great confidence in me. But, here I'm flying again today," he laughed.

Laura Cooke, a spokeswoman for Air Canada, said the airline hoped to resume all scheduled flights by Wednesday afternoon.

"Obviously we need the co-operation of Mother Nature today, and we are working flat out to resume as normal an operation as possible today following the closure of the airport for much of yesterday."

Source: Canadian Press

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