Senator’s wife was distraught, but not threatening on flight

SASKATOON (CP) — A passenger says a senator’s wife charged with causing a disturbance on a flight was upset her husband was experiencing tightness in his chest, but she wasn’t threatening.

Scott Wright, a former ambulance attendant, said he volunteered last Thursday when the crew on the Ottawa to Saskatoon flight asked for anyone with medical experience to help Sen. Rod Zimmer, who wasn’t feeling well.

The couple were seated towards the rear of the aircraft, Wright said, and he said Zimmer’s wife, Maygan Sensenberger was emotionally distraught by her husband’s condition.

Wright said Zimmer, 69, started feeling better after he was given some oxygen, but Sensenberger, 23, was still upset and the couple were fighting with each other over Zimmer’s condition.

“I never at any time felt threatened,” Wright said Monday. “And all of the frustration she expressed while I was there was targeted around the med- ical condition and the health of her husband.” Sensenberger was charged with endangering the safety of the aircraft and causing a disturbance.

On Monday, a Saskatoon provincial court judge released her from custody on the condition that she have no contact with her husband. Zimmer sat in the front row of the courtroom during the hearing.

He left through a back door, as his wife walked out the front and rushed by reporters into a waiting black car.