“Fishgate:” Business Class Passenger’s Tantrum Causes Five-Hour Delay

A Toronto-bound Air Canada (AC) flight from Vancouver was delayed for five hours on Saturday after a business class passenger who was denied his fish dinner became aggressive toward cabin crew. Eyewitness accounts indicate that alcohol wasn’t involved in the incident, which saw the passenger removed from the plane.

A Toronto-bound Air Canada flight from Vancouver was delayed for over five hours on Saturday after a business class passenger who had been denied his first choice of meal became abusive toward cabin crew, CTV News reports.

According to an unidentified eyewitness, the traveler, who was unable to eat meat or wheat, allegedly became aggressive towards staff onboard Air Canada Flight 118 after being informed that no fish option was available.

“He was very belligerent, very rude to the flight attendant. The flight attendant was very polite, she offered him several choices,” said the unidentified source. The outlet also made contact with two other eyewitnesses, who confirmed the passenger’s behavior.

“He was very calm and was like, ‘If I don’t get fish, there will be a problem. One way or another, I will get my fish, either you serve it to me or I will serve it to myself,” said one of the pair.

Due to the man’s behavior, the plane went back to the gate and the passenger was taken off of the flight.

At this point, one eyewitness explained, “The pilot came on the radio and said, ‘Due to this delay of having to come back to the gate, the co-pilot and I have tapped out on our hours and we need to get you new pilots to get you to Toronto.’”

The flight, which was intended to depart from Vancouver at 2 p.m. local time, finally departed at 7:30 p.m. local time.

Speaking of the cause of the delay, one of the eyewitnesses said, “We were all inconvenienced because this guy had a hissy fit over not being able to get fish.”

[Source: Air Canada]