Could you sleep this soundly?

[ECB]

news.yahoo.com/sleepy-womans-epic-18-hr-flight-she-misses-132658925.html

A Frenchwoman endured an 18-hour journey from the Pakistani city of Lahore to Paris and back again after sleeping through her plane's stop in the French capital, officials said on Wednesday.

Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) are investigating how ground crew failed to notice the woman during the plane's two-hour stopover at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris.

The woman, named as Patrice Christine Ahmed, who is married to a Pakistani, left Lahore at noon on Tuesday to fly to Paris via Milan, but did not wake up to get off the plane, airline spokesman Sultan Hasan told AFP.

The woman did not mention her mistake to cabin crew and the matter only came to light when she was stopped by immigration officials on arrival back in Lahore on Wednesday morning -- after a 12,000-kilometre (7700-mile) round trip.

Hasan said PIA were investigating the incident and the French subcontractor responsible for passenger handling in Paris.

"We have put questions to this French firm also about the incident but it is also the responsibility of the passenger to disembark at the destination," he said.

"It is a passenger's responsibility to check about the destination and disembark when the plane arrives at the particular airport."

PIA later arranged to send the woman back to Paris with another airline because none of its own flights were available, but said that the party responsible for the negligence will pay for the extra ticket.

"It depends who is at fault. If it is a mistake by the local firm, they will pay and if the woman herself is responsible than she will have to bear the cost," Hasan said.

[Deleted]

Aug 23, 2012 11:38:57 GMT -5 ECB said:

"We have put questions to this French firm also about the incident but it is also the responsibility of the passenger to disembark at the destination," he said.

"It is a passenger's responsibility to check about the destination and disembark when the plane arrives at the particular airport."

Is it? I think the onus should be on the airline to make sure there's no passengers left on the plane when they leave. She's lucky she ended up where she started from and not some third location.

Also I can't even imagine sleeping for nearly 18 hours. It sounds lovely.

[CallingAllAngels]

I wonder if she took something to help her relax on the plane and it worked a little too well.

[explorer2001]

Only if I was on some crazy medication. I sleep in planes but not that soundly. Heck the rain woke me up last night.

[Deleted]

She had to have taken something.

[egeiger]

18 hr flight =/= 18 hrs sleep. She could have been asleep for 3 hours, 30 min prior to and 30 min after departure of the second leg of the trip, right? I agree, its crappy, but from 30k feet, she may not have realized the plane ever stopped and that people deplaned. If her phone is turned off, she wouldn't have known the time. I would have thought the flight crew would have noticed her when they were cleaning up.

[Susie]

I agree, she must have taken something to help her sleep! Or, she was in some seriously fancy schmancy business class and therefore able to get more comfortable, in which case someone really should've noticed she didn't vacate her seat!

I was dying to get off the plane after 6 hours this week. I can't sleep for more than a couple hours at a time on a plane.

[fbf2006]

Like blessed, I can't sleep on planes. I can doze off for 15 - 30 minute intervals, that's about it.

[dr.girlfriend]

I agree that she might have taken something, but there's no reason to think she slept 18 hours solid. She could have fallen asleep just before landing, slept during the stopover, and then woken up on the return flight thinking she was still on the original flight. I can't imagine sleeping through everyone disembarking, but maybe...when I'm really exhausted, I've slept through DS jumping up and down on the bed next to my head.

[rikki]

Aug 23, 2012 12:05:47 GMT -5 jenny1980 said:

Sounds like someone enjoyed a xanax with a cocktail LOL.

Yep! The one time I tried this (red eye from LAX to ORD) the flight attendant had to wake me up after the plane landed.

[sporky]

Aug 23, 2012 11:58:10 GMT -5 dbsk8dance said:

She had to have taken something.

agreed. i don't get how you don't wake up and notice when the plane lands and people start to disembark. but then again, i wake up if DH breathes too loudly at night, so...

[raangoli]

How did people around her just ignore her? Was she in a window seat or did people climb over her to get out? So bizarre.

[OscarQ]

I did this on a flight to Singapore - took a couple sleeping pills, had a couple adult beverages and slept most of the way. I sort of woke up with we stopped in Amsterdam but just enough to acknowledge we were there and I went straight back to sleep. I was in business class though, I can never sleep in coach.

[ECB]

Oh, I don't think she slept for 18 hours - I'm just thinking of the landing, sitting there for 2 hours, loading the plane and then taking off again! There is no way I could sleep through all that! I'm sure she did take something, which I'm wondering how that will factor into "whose responsible".

[dirtyred]

I sleep like I'm dead, even without medication.

Once, the apartment building behind my house (about 100 feet from my house) caught on fire during the night. I slept through the two fire trucks and 3 police cars arriving with sirens blaring, and through the entire fire-fighting portion. I woke up at my usual time in the morning, as they were finishing up.

[hannamaren]

My H can sleep through anything. Fire alarms, a real fire, people yellingat him. Even if he wakes up in the middle of the night, he doesnt remember. He isnt really awake.
He never hears the baby. We are never quiet in the morning.
He says it is because he grew up with bombs going off.

[Deleted]

You know, I'm almost going to say this is the airline's responsibility. I'm just not sure how they could clean up a plane and NOT notice her, KWIM? I would have thought they do a check after everyone is off to double check.