Kevin Wilson
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Feb 01/02) - Julia Tate knew the three men were trouble the moment she saw them in the airport. Little did she know she would be on their flight from Rome to Toronto.

Julia Tate is still waiting for answers after a dream vacation turned into a nightmare flight last month. - Kevin Wilson/NNSL photo

"They were in the international departures area, and they were obviously drunk," said Tate.

Now she wants to know why the flight crew didn't do more once they boarded Air Canada Flight 3041, Jan. 12.

Tate and her spouse, Pierre LePage, both of Yellowknife, were returning home from a two-week vacation in Italy.

The end of the dream vacation turned nightmarish, as a horrified Tate watched the three men steal liquor from the drinks cart, get progressively more obnoxious, and even expose themselves to other passengers.

One of the men, "took his penis out and 'flicked it' several times in his hand," Tate wrote in a letter sent to Air Canada, the federal minister of transport, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), their lawyer, Liberal MP Ethel Blondin-Andrew and to The Globe and Mail.

"It was like a three-ring circus. Nobody was in charge," said Tate.

According to Tate's count, the men took eight bottles of wine and at least nine airplane bottles of liquor from the drinks cart before being cut off.

When Tate expressed concerns to the flight crew, she was told they "hoped (the men) would get drunk enough and pass out."

Worse still, when Flight 3041 landed at Pearson International Airport, nothing happened.

"This is just to bring awareness to people...If the RCMP were standing at the gate when we arrived, there would have been no letter," said Tate.

Angela Mah, an Air Canada spokesperson, said the airline was investigating the situation, and would have more information, "by the end of the week."