PILOTS on a recent Air Canada Rouge flight were forced to declare an in-flight emergency and don oxygen masks after they noticed a foul smell in the aircraft.
The strong smell was reportedly from the “world’s smelliest fruit” with the crew deciding to turn the plane around after they couldn’t get rid of the smell.
The bizarre incident took place on September 17.
According to an incident report on The Aviation Herald, the Boeing 767 was scheduled to fly from Vancouver to Montreal.
At 7,000ft, a strong smell was detected throughout the aircraft.
Despite the crew’s best efforts to clear the smell from the cabin, the odour persisted, forcing the crew to stop the ascent.
Instead, the pilots were said to have declared Pan Pan, the second highest level of emergency.
It’s a phrase used to declare emergency in situations that were serious but not life-threatening.
The plane, carrying 245 passengers and eight crew, was then forced to return to Vancouver just 37 minutes after departure.
The pilots were also said to have donned oxygen masks for the return flight.
None of the passengers or crew were hurt during the incident.
A follow up investigation by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada revealed that the smell had come from a shipment of durian, a tropical fruit known for being “the world’s smelliest fruit”.
Although the fruits are loved by some, their unique odour has been known to trigger powerful disgust responses in others, with their smell being likened to rotting onions, turpentine, and even raw sewage.
In fact, in 2018, an Indonesian plane was grounded after the smell of durian reportedly sparked a brawl in the cabin.
In this case, the fruit was said to have been stored in the forward cargo hold of the plane.
After landing, the shipment was offloaded with the aircraft returning to service 20 hours after the original departure time.
A female passenger recently claimed she was forced to sit in her own urine for seven hours.
While earlier this year, a woman woke up from a flight to realise she was locked inside an empty plane.
Sun Online Travel has contacted Air Canada and Transportation Safety Board of Canada for comment.
