A passenger on the controversial flight between Montreal and Cancun, who tested positive for COVID-19, believes dozens of passengers who traveled with her have also been infected with the coronavirus.
Passengers partying without a mask on a recent Sunwing flight from Montreal to Cancun, Mexico, are not welcome aboard Air Transat and Air Canada planes. Among those looking for a way home, Rebecca St-Pierre, a 19-year-old student from Trois-Rivières, said she felt abandoned, not knowing how she was going to pay for her hotel room as his stay is extended indefinitely. She said she tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday and is now in isolation in Tulum, south of Cancun, Mexico. She estimates that around 30 other people on the flight tested positive.
Ms. St-Pierre, moved, told The Canadian Press that she did not know who among the other passengers on the flight were still in Mexico. She added that the organizer had “just abandoned everyone”.
Ms St-Pierre said she won the trip in a contest on social media Instagram and had never heard of the organizer, who identifies on social media as James William Awad. She said that she thought she would spend a week of relaxation “being careful”, but that this trip, which was initially free, had become very expensive.
Ms St-Pierre acknowledged that videos of the partying passengers circulating on social media in recent days give an accurate picture of what happened during the five-hour flight to Cancun. She claimed there was no social distancing and believed some people were using drugs.
She added that before the scheduled return trip, some people put petroleum jelly in their noses in an attempt to bypass tests for COVID-19.
An aviation expert said he hopes the Transportation Department’s investigation will shed light on why the pilot did not request an emergency landing after the crew lost control of the passengers.
“We live in a world where pseudo-influencers think they’re above everything, but an airplane 30,000 feet above the ground can be extremely dangerous,” said Mehran Ebrahimi, who heads a research unit on the ground. aerospace industry at the University of Quebec in Montreal.
“Imagine that people decide, for the fun of it, to play with the door? An airplane is not a cabin that you rent where you can do whatever you want, ”Ebrahimi added.