Passengers stranded in Ottawa after terrifying flight turns back

An Air Canada plane dropped and rocked violently for half an hour as Halifax-bound passengers screamed, cried, vomited and held on for dear life on Sunday night, but that was just the start of their ordeal.

As of Monday afternoon, many of the more than 100 passengers on Air Canada flight 1124 had been lying and sitting on the floor of the Ottawa airport among piles of suitcases and duffel bags since 1 a.m., and there were no assurances that they would make it home for Christmas.

The plane had originally left Toronto at 7 p.m. Sunday, making a stopover in Ottawa before heading on to Halifax at 9 p.m. It returned to Ottawa after being unable to land due to fearsome turbulence during a winter snowstorm.

Mid-afternoon, passengers heard again from an Air Canada spokesman, who said there were simply not enough planes available to get them to Halifax. However, he said he would check again once a snowstorm in the Maritimes had subsided enough for the Halifax airport to reopen.

Dozens of passengers from other flights cancelled because of the weather were also stranded.

Passengers Mike Simon and Alicia Wood, who had been on flight 1124, were clearly frustrated.

"We felt like abandoned kids here," said Simon. "We went through a lot on that flight .… Now, here we are after 2 o' clock [p.m.], and he still can't assure us that there's a plane for us."

Wood said she had been trying to get home to Moncton since 11 a.m. Sunday and hadn't slept in 48 hours.

She ended up on the Halifax-bound flight out of Ottawa after her Montreal-Moncton flight was cancelled.

'The worst experience of my life'

That flight was "the worst experience of my life," she said.

"There was no warning. We just kind of dropped all of a sudden and didn't stop dropping … and there was a lot of people sick on the flight as a result. It was pretty gross .… I had to hold for my life. I had my seatbelt on and I still couldn't even stay on my chair. There was people who got hurt on the flight because of the turbulence."

After two unsuccessful attempts to land, the pilot announced that the plane was turning around and heading back to Montreal.

Eventually, the plane made it back to Ottawa instead.

Robert Ford, who was in the airport with his wife Tina and their daughter Summer, said he's flown all over the world, but that was "the worst experience I've ever had on an aircraft."

"I was crying and I did not like it," Summer added.

After landing, passengers were given phone numbers to book a hotel and rebook their flight, but no one could get through to either number, Ford said, and the family eventually found their own hotel.

Since then, Ford said he'd been talking to people in Nova Scotia near the airport who contradicted the information provided by Air Canada.

Hassles about unattended bags

"They say Porter [Airlines] and WestJet are landing their planes no problem, so we don't know who to believe."

Meanwhile, it had been a tough night at the airport for Wood.

"I've been eating not-great food, trying to sleep on the tile floor 'cause they won't let us in where the carpet is. It's just been really unpleasant," she said. "There's been people hassling us about leaving our bags unattended, but when you live here practically, it's hard not to."

Wood said she wants to go home and see her family, but already called them to say she probably wouldn't make it in time for Christmas.

"It would be nice to make it," she said. "We'll see, though."