Sleeping passenger locked in plane at
Houston airport
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[December 10, 2013]
By Andrea Lorenz
HOUSTON (Reuters) — A Louisiana man flying
to California woke up on a dark, empty plane parked at Bush
Intercontinental Airport in Houston after sleeping through the call to
exit the aircraft, officials said on Monday.
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Tom Wagner was supposed to leave the plane in Houston last Friday
and board a flight to California. Instead, he found himself locked
inside the ExpressJet plane, which was operating as a United Express
flight.
He called his girlfriend for help, according to an exclusive
interview he gave to Houston television station KTRK.
"She thought I was crazy. I said ... 'I'm locked on the plane. I'm
telling you the truth; you better go somewhere and get me off this
plane,'" Wagner told the broadcaster.
Ground staff servicing the airplane a few hours after it landed
found and released Wagner, ExpressJet spokeswoman Samantha Harrison
said.
Company policy requires the flight crew to do a final sweep of the
cabin and the company was investigating how Wagner was left onboard,
Harrison said.
"As part of post-flight procedures, our flight attendants are
responsible for completing a walk-through on the aircraft," Harrison
said in an email.
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The company said in a statement: "We sincerely apologize for the
inconvenience this caused for the passenger."
Wagner told KTRK the airline paid for a hotel in Houston and gave
him a $250 voucher for his trouble.
(Editing by Jon Herskovitz and Andrew Hay)
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