A woman passenger of Air Canada has said that she was left alone on a cold and dark plane after falling asleep during a domestic flight and forgotten by the ground staff, forcing the flag carrier to investigate the incident.

Tiffani Adams said she fell asleep while flying from Quebec to Toronto on June 9. When she woke up, she was freezing cold and still buckled into her seat, but the aircraft was parked after the 90-minute flight.

Adams’s terrifying experience was posted by a friend Deanna Noel-Dale on Air Canada’s Facebook page, drawing over 600 reactions.

Air Canada has confirmed the incident occurred and is investigating.

Adams said on Facebook that she woke up around midnight amid freezing cold still trapped in her seat in complete darkness, a few hours after the flight landed at the Pearson Airport.

She said the experience was “terrifying”.

Adams managed to call her friend Noel-Dale to let her know where she was when her phone died less than a minute into the call.

She was unable to charge her phone as the plane had been shut down.

Noel-Dale called airport authorities in Toronto and told them of Adams’s whereabouts.

While she was on board, Adams managed to locate a torch in the cockpit and attempted to attract attention.

She was spotted by a luggage cart operator who she claimed was “in shock”.

“I am literally dangling my legs out the plane... He is asking how the heck they left me on the plane... I’m wondering the same,” said Adams.

“Anyway the guy had the ladder dock and I jumped to safety before he was even a foot from the door,” the Toronto Sun quoted her as saying.

“I haven't got much sleep since the reoccurring night terrors and waking up anxious and afraid I'm alone locked up someplace dark,” Adams says.

She said that Air Canada staff offered her a limousine and a hotel but she declined, wanting to return home as quickly as possible.

She said that representatives from Air Canada had called her twice as part of the investigation and apologised.

Air Canada has confirmed Adams’s account and said it was reviewing the incident, according to Canadian media reports.

The frightening incident triggered an avalanche of tweets. Many were concerned about the safety of the woman passenger: