Canadian Air Transat pilots charged with drinking, cause cancellation of Glasgow-Toronto flight
After his Glasgow-Toronto flight was cancelled because its pilots were charged with being impaired, Colin McAllister of the TV duo Colin and Justin is happy to arrive in Toronto on a rescheduled flight.
Air Transat passengers flying from Glasgow finally landed in Toronto from Glasgow Tuesday afternoon, after their original flight wsa cancelled. The pilot and first officer were charged with being under the influence of alcohol before departure.
Colin and Justin are two of the many Air Transat passengers whose flight was delayed after two pilots were charged with being impaired prior to leaving Glasgow.
Colin McAllister is TV personality from the design duo Colin and Justin. He was supposed to be on that cancelled flight from Glasgow and tells As It Happens guest host Helen Mann about the unsettling ordeal.
Helen Mann: Colin, what was your first indication that this flight wasn't going to take off as scheduled?
Colin McAllister: We actually fly the Glasgow-Toronto route probably every eight weeks. We're regular travelers with Air Transat and on that route. The flight initially was delayed for an hour, then for two hours, then suddenly there was no more information. The board wasn't being updated. Travellers didn't know what was happening. We called down to concierge services and then they said "Look, this flight's been cancelled due to 'operational issues.'"
HM: So at that point, all you knew was "operational issues?"
CM: That was it — so immediately you think it's something technical — you think something is wrong with the aircraft. But then we woke up this morning and loads of people had gone through our Twitter, our social media, and they were saying "Look, we know what's happened with your plane. It's in the newspapers." The airline didn't explain at all. There was no communication through the night — nothing to let us know that this was going on.
CM: We heard on social media. We were horrified because I think as a traveller you assume that the person in charge of your journey is in charge of their faculties — and it seems like the pilot and the co-pilot were allegedly under the influence of alcohol. You don't even want to get into what might have happened because it didn't happen. It's because someone on the ground at Glasgow airport was vigilant enough to actually report this, was brave enough to actually say, "Okay the boss of this plane, the pilot, the guy at the top the tree here, is wrong and we need to make a call. We need to stop this happening."
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.