Photo via Flickr

Air Canada proves that bureaucracy on a plane can be far more terrifying than snakes. Last week, passengers aboard AC flight 720 to New York were caught in the crossfire of a lengthy battle between US Customs and Border Control and Air Canada officials as to which country they were technically in, The Globe and Mail reports.

The flight was scheduled to depart Toronto at 5:15PM, though was eventually cancelled. Passengers knew that this was no ordinary cancellation when they weren’t allowed to disembark from the plane after nearly two hours of waiting. 

The issue stemmed from the fact that the US-bound passengers had already predeclared customs, and it was unclear whether or not the passengers were technically in the country or not. Without leaving the plane, the passengers were forced to redeclare customs as if they were coming back into Canada, answering questions like: “how many days were you out of the country? Where were you? What day did you leave?'”

Frustrated with the sluggish process, one flight passenger exclaimed: “This is going to be in the New York Times when I get home! This is outrageous!”

But hey – it’s a Monday, we’ll level. For some more uplifting airline news watch this video below, in which the Philly Orchestra peformed a show on a delayed flight in China earlier this month.

[via The Globe and Mail]

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Jeremy Schipper is an intern at Toronto Standard. You can follow him on Twitter at @jeromeoschipps.