Family out $2,500 after Swoop emergency landing in Regina

Regina was the site of “incredible stress” for an Ontario man last week as he tried to get his family from their emergency landing to a funeral a province away.

Late Wednesday night, a Swoop plane from London, Ont., bound for Edmonton had to make an emergency stop in Regina. A passenger was smoking on the plane, which is illegal.

Rob Wardrop was on the plane with his family.

“We smelled cigarette smoke, and then a couple minutes after we smelled it, the crew started going up and down the aisles and then they said, ‘Oh, we’re making a landing.’ Then they came out in the aisles with oxygen masks on, and then it was pretty clear we weren’t landing in Edmonton, and we ended up in Regina,” Wardrop explained.

His family wasn’t on the flight heading to a vacation; they were on their way to his mother-in-law’s funeral in Red Deer, about two hours south of Edmonton.

All the passengers filed out of the plane while some were kept behind and questioned about the smoking. Wardrop said the passengers got their bags, then stood around for about six hours waiting to be taken to a hotel for the night in Regina.

According to Wardrop, it wasn’t until 5 o’clock the next morning that the passengers were told a new flight had been booked, but it didn’t take off until 9:30 Thursday night, which was about eight hours after the funeral was supposed to begin.

They thought about renting a car and driving to Red Deer, but none of the rental companies opened until 8 a.m., and that wouldn’t give them enough time for the drive. The only option was a flight.

Wardrop said he approached the WestJet staff — Swoop doesn’t have staff in Regina, and WestJet owns Swoop — and they tried to help him as best they could. He mentioned multiple times how helpful the WestJet staff were.

Eventually they had a plan.

“My family and I had to purchase tickets on a WestJet flight for $2,500.18 to get us to Edmonton on time, and Swoop agreed that they would pay for the $2,500,” Wardrop said.

They loaded onto a plane and went on to their destination. Wardrop noted the other passengers from his original flight were still waiting in the terminal to go to a hotel when his family left on the other plane.

His family got to Edmonton and made it to the funeral with only a few minutes to spare, but then the big problem hit.

“I phoned (Swoop) and asked what was the process to get paid back for the $2,500, and now they’re refusing to pay,” said Wardrop.

Wardrop said the company believes it has met its responsibilities by providing the 9:30 p.m. flight, even though it would have been much too late for his family. He said Swoop also told him that, because a WestJet employee called Swoop on their behalf and it wasn’t a Swoop employee who told him the flight would be covered, the company didn’t have to pay.

Swoop declined to comment on the incident, citing the privacy of the passengers involved, but it did point to its tariff agreement, which dictates procedures and responsibilities.

Because the situation requiring the landing was out of the airline’s control, it’s pointing to a rule in its tariff agreement, which says the passenger can either take the alternate flight Swoop provided, or Swoop will refund the rest of the ticket to the passenger.

If Swoop determined the “schedule irregularity” was within its control, its tariff agreement says one of the options available to passengers is to be sent to their destination on another provider within a reasonable amount of time and Swoop will pay for it.

Wardrop isn’t going to leave the situation as it is. He said he’s going to take the airline to small claims court back in Ontario over the money.

“I just wish Swoop would realize what they put people through,” he said. “Sometimes it’s about people, instead of being worried about what the tariffs say.”