Sleeping Passengers Abandoned On Empty American Airlines Planes: A Startling Union Memo Reveals Why – View from the Wing

American Airlines flight attendants apparently have been leaving passengers on board aircraft. Everyone leaves the plane, and the sleeping passenger is still there. Sometimes they’re in a window seat and no one notices. Other times they’re in the lavatory.

Cabin crew received a memo in late December from their union warning that this seems to be happening more and more, and constitutes a violation of federal rules (“minimum crew violation”) since a minimum number of flight attendants must be on board an aircraft whenever there are passengers there. And the union and airline have concluded this is happening because flight attendants are failing to perform their security checks.

Paddle Your Own Kanoo excerpted the memo.

These procedures are required to ensure that no passenger is ever left onboard. Check lavatories, and make sure no passengers are sleeping in or under seats. This is a critical final check to confirm that no one has been overlooked, and this ensures that you and your crew aren’t at risk of violating a FAR…Leaving passengers on the aircraft unattended is a significant safety and security concern and we appreciate everyone’s shared efforts in ensuring this doesn’t happen.

Flight attendants have been warned that all crew on a flight are responsible for the post-flight check, and that the lead flight attendant must do a final walkthrough prior exiting the aircraft to check for any passengers still on board.

Famously, an Air Canada passenger from Quebec City to Toronto fell asleep on a plane in 2019 – slept through touch down, gate arrival, and all the other customers getting off the plane. When she woke up, the plane had been towed away from the gate to be parked overnight. She was in a totally dark aircraft with no way off.

Her cell phone was out of battery and she couldn’t call for help. She opened the aircraft’s door but it was too treacherous a drop onto concrete to make it. Ultimately she flagged down a worker driving a baggage cart who went for help. Obviously that’s a situation to be avoided, but so is having a passenger on a plane between flights.

I’ve been known to doze on on the ground during long waits to push back and taxi, but I’m always rustled away as we take off. I’ve never slept past touchdown so this is hard for me to imagine, but there are heavy sleepers out there. Goodness knows I’ve passed my stop on DC’s metro, but just because I was focused working never because I had fallen asleep.