Watch above: An Edmonton man has been frantically trying to bring his family home, but they’ve been stuck at a Turkish airport for the past 48 hours. The family says they haven’t been able to get a straight answer from anyone. Eric Szeto reports.
EDMONTON — An Edmonton man, whose family was supposed to arrive home from Pakistan on Friday, has spent the past 24 hours frantically struggling to bring them home.
“Since yesterday, since I got up, I did not eat, I did not brush my teeth. I was on the phone,” Syed Adil said Sunday morning.
Adil’s wife, their four children and his sister have been in Pakistan for the past month visiting family. After an initial flight delay in Pakistan, they made their way to Instanbul, Turkey where they’ve been stuck since Friday.
After connecting with his family via Skype Sunday morning, Adil says he learned they had been denied entry onto their flight to Toronto. Adil’s family told him they weren’t given the correct boarding passes.
“Everybody else, they boarded the plane except my family and my sister. And they are saying there is something wrong with their ticket,” he explained.
Searching for answers, Adil phoned Turkish Airlines and Air Canada several times but says he’s been given the runaround.
“Turkish is telling me go and talk to Air Canada. Air Canada is saying it’s not our problem, your family is on Turkish airline. I said, ‘Guys be human,'” he explained. “When you get a call from your daughter saying, ‘We are here at the airport, we don’t know what to do, we don’t know where to go, they’re not giving us anything,’ how do you feel? It’s crazy.”
“It’s not about the money it’s about the principle. They should take care of their passengers.”
Sunday morning, Air Canada told Adil the earliest they could get his family booked on a flight home together was on Wednesday. Late Sunday afternoon, the airline rebooked the flights; Adil’s family is now expected to return home late Monday night.
Global News contacted Air Canada and Turkish Airlines multiple times for comment Sunday, but our inquiries were not returned.
With files from Eric Szeto, Global News.
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