According to The Huffington Post, Tom Wagner said that they wanted him to keep the incident quiet, and put him up in a nearby hotel and give him a $250 flight voucher to make the whole ordeal go away. Like many people tend to do, Tom Wagner dozed off on his United Express flight flying from Louisiana on Dec. 6. But when Tom Wagner woke up, everyone else on the plane was gone — and the plane was locked. He woke up at his layover in Houston to a cold and pitch-black cabin, and the aircraft doors were locked shut at Houston’s Bush Intercontinental Airport.
“I woke up and the lights were out. I was like, what’s going on? I thought maybe it was a layover, still on the same plane.” According to ABC News, Tom Wagner says that the United Express crew left him in the plane, even after he alerted authorities through his girlfriend, for more than 30 minutes.
Luckily, his cell phone wasn’t dead. “I called my girlfriend, and she thought I was crazy. I said, ‘Debbie I’m locked on the plane.” Around a half an hour later, airline workers boarded the aircraft and rescued Wagner.
On Saturday afternoon, ExpressJet issued a statement to Eyewitness News: “An ExpressJet passenger remained on board flight 4245, operating as United Express from Lafayette, La. to Houston on Friday, Dec. 6, after the all passengers had deplaned. ExpressJet is investigating to determine how this occurred. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this caused for the passenger.”
The airline has said that there was a post-flight walk-through that was done, but the company could not explain how they missed Tom Wagner. The company has also said in a statement that they are currently investigating the unfortunate incident. Tom Wagner has said to the media that not one person, neither a passenger or any United Express airline staff member woke him up.
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