Air Canada says it's investigating after a pregnant Winnipeg woman and her young son were trapped for several minutes inside the bridge that links the plane with the airport.

Madelaine MacKay told CBC News she and her 16-month-old son were disembarking from an Air Canada Jazz flight that arrived at Winnipeg's James A. Richardson International Airport on Sunday night.

MacKay said she was exhausted at the time, having travelled on three connecting flights home from England.

So when the last flight landed in Winnipeg, MacKay said she waited in the jet bridge — the corridor that connects the aircraft to the airport terminal — to retrieve her child's stroller.

The flight crew walked past them, and the next thing she knew, she and the toddler were locked inside the jet bridge, she said.

"I was kind of panicking because I thought, 'Gosh, it's been several minutes now,'" MacKay said in an interview Monday.

"I thought, 'Is it too traumatic to pull the fire alarm?' I just don't know — how long should I wait?"

MacKay said she was in tears as she banged on a window, until a woman who was walking to the washroom noticed her.

An Air Canada employee came by a short time later to get MacKay and her son out of the locked jet bridge.

Airline apologizes

MacKay said she was still sobbing by the time she was reunited with her husband, who was waiting in the arrivals area.

"When he sees me get off the elevator crying with, you know, the baby and everything, I think he was livid," she said.

"Obviously he was anxious because he had seen the bags come out, he had seen everyone get off the plane."

An Air Canada spokesperson confirmed to CBC News that the jet bridge door was locked for about four minutes.

"A very unfortunate error occurred in that the door to the bridge was inadvertently locked … when airport staff believed that all passengers and crew members had deplaned the aircraft and exited the bridge," the spokesperson stated in an email.

"This is certainly an anomaly and our sincere apologies to the passenger who was impacted by this situation."

Air Canada says it is investigating the incident to determine why the error happened and how it can be prevented in the future.

MacKay said it was bizarre that no one knew she and her son were still inside the jet bridge.