The passenger's terrifying ordeal has been viewed 5 million times. Photo / TikTok @Karlll_
An Air Canada passenger's ordeal has gone viral after filming a large crack in his window.
What initially appeared to be a trivial bit of wear to the aircraft quickly resulted in a terrifying TikTok video with hundreds of thousands of views.
Karl Haddad, 20, had just caught his connection from Toronto to Montreal, after a long flight from Lebanon with his sister. Understandably he was exhausted, and hoped to catch some shu-eye on the window by his seat.
However, Haddad didn't get much rest. He noticed the frame of his window had large cracks leading to the outside of the aircraft. More worrying still, when he touched it, the whole frame appeared to be loose.
"I poked at it a little bit to see if it was a big crack," he told BuzzFeed before having a "mini heart attack for about 10 minutes."
This was not the restful conclusion to his 27-hour journey from Beirut he and his sister were hoping for.
Naturally he brought it to the attention of the cabin crew, who at first couldn't believe what Haddad told them.
"She asked me to poke it in front of her. She said it was pretty bad, and she said she was going to call the captain."
The captain arrived minutes later, he told BuzzFeed, who assured Haddad and his sister that they would be landing "as soon as possible."
While the video claims that the captain "decided to force landing," Haddad clarified that it was not a diversion or emergency landing. However, he claims the plane started its decent into Montreal immediately after bringing the damage to the notice of he crew.
A spokesperson for Air Canada gave a statement regarding the issue, saying the damage was not a concern and the plane arrived in Montreal Airport as planned.
"The part in question is a window blind frame assembly where the window blind slides up and down,' they said. 'This is a plastic part of the trim around the window and not a critical structural part," they told BuzzFeed.
Although the damage was merely cosmetic, this did not stop Haddad from having a "mini anxiety attack", he said.
With over 5 million views, comments on the TikTok video agree that it must have been a terrifying ordeal.