Flight AC051 had left Delhi shortly after midnight local time. When Pant’s symptoms started seven hours later, it was over Europe. Pande says she pleaded with the cabin crew to divert the plane and land in order to get her father to a hospital.

Instead, the flight stayed on course for nine more hours, travelling over Ireland, across the Atlantic Ocean and Eastern Canada before touching ground in Montreal. Paramedics were waiting — but Pant died as they worked on him.

“I was very hysterical,” said Pande. “My mind was gone at this point.”

Her father was officially pronounced dead at a Montreal hospital from a “presumed infarction” — dead heart tissue.

Two months later, Pande says the piercing grief has given way to anger.

“He was at the mercy of the pilot and Air Canada people,” she told Go Public. “They were inhumane and callous.”

  • MotoAsh@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Murdered via neglegence. Choosing to finish the flight on time over someone’s life should be despicable to anyone with a fragment of a soul left.

    • macaroni1556@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      There are the mandated penalties for late arrivals. Diverting could result in a 24h delay for ~250 passengers which could mean a 250k fine

      Except despite all the BS reasons AC says flights are outside of their control, this one is definitely outside their control.

      So that doesn’t hold.I wonder what their decision was based on.

      • Rodeo@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        a 250k fine

        Oh wow, that’s like a whole minute worth of revenue for them

      • Nouveau_Burnswick@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Cost to divert was estimated at $900,000 in the article. Decision was based for the air medical contractor in the article.

        One improvement I can immediately see, is to put the ground medical team in contact directly with the head flight attendant, rather than having communications filtered by the pilot. Each rebroadcast reduces communication accuracy.

      • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        That’s not the actual number though, we’ll find that out when this goes to court and they settle or lose.

        If AC wins, then it’s less than 900k

    • Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      Eh, doesn’t matter how expensive it is they’ll just increase ticket prices. It’s not like there’s much competition or incentive for air Canada to improve things.

    • girlfreddy@lemmy.caOP
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      1 year ago

      I think you mean renationalize … Mulroney sold it off in '88 after deregulating airfares and letting airlines abandon uneconomic routes. And Ottawa bailed out AC during COVID, buying up almost 10% of the shares.

      My guess is nationalization is on the table.

    • zephyreks@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      Canada would operate perfectly fine with nationalized airlines, telecoms, and O&G. These are established industries that don’t need market effects to grow or remain profitable.

      The only reason we don’t is because we’re fucking idiots beholden to capitalism.

  • SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Ah, I see the airline has moved on from simply degrading disabled people to murdering them. So much more efficient!

  • Cyborganism@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    Next time just threaten to blow up the plane and pretend you have a bomb in your suitcase ready to blow if they don’t land immediately.

    They’ll care so much about saving their property that they’ll definitely land.

  • Metal Zealot@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    How can a shit-show like Air Canada operate like this for so long??

    AND ALWAYS GET AWAY WITH IT???

  • TQuid@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    Jesus Christ Air Canada is going hard for that cartoon villain status