City police won’t be pursuing charges against a 27-year-old Portuguese man who allegedly caused a Westjet airplane to make an unscheduled landing in Thunder Bay.
Thunder Bay Police Service officers say the Toronto-bound Westjet Boeing 737 made an unscheduled stop at the Thunder Bay International Airport Saturday night when a passenger on board became unruly.
Passengers on board told tbnewswatch.com Saturday night that the flight was about three hours in when a man smoked a cigarette in the plane’s bathroom. When he exited the bathroom, passengers say he tried to light another cigarette and was told not to.
He then allegedly struck a flight attendant.
Police say when the man was taken into custody there were concerns that he may made threats regarding a bomb on board.
OPP and Thunder Bay police searched the plane as a precaution and found no explosives.
Thunder Bay Police Service spokesman Chris Adams said the man had a history of mental illness and was traveling with his father at the time of the incident.
He said they were coming back from a family reunion in Vancouver and on their way back home when the 27-year-old had an expected episode.
“The investigation is over,” Adams said on Sunday. “He’s still being held at the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre for an assessment. It’s expected that the RCMP will be following up as an immigration matter and he`ll return to Portugal. There was a number of challenges and there was a language barrier as well. He has to stabilize before he travels.”
Adams added that the rest of the passengers and crew stayed overnight in Thunder Bay and would continue the rest of their journey sometime in the afternoon.
Robert Palmer, manager and public relations for Westjet, said the passenger showed violent behaviour and so the captain diverted the plane as a precaution. Palmer said the crew approached the man and asked him to return to his seat.
When that failed, the captain gave an order for him to comply with, which wasn’t followed.
“Obviously we don’t take any chances,” Palmer said. “We divert to the nearest airport if we can’t resolve the situation in the air and in this particular case we obviously couldn’t. It’s rare but unfortunately it does happen from time to time and that’s what happened this time.”
In order to maintain the safety of everyone on board, Palmer said the captain and crew have the right to restrain an individual if they deem it necessary.
“It’s an extreme measure but it is necessary in extreme cases and this is one of them,” he said.
Palmer added they would look at compensating the passengers on that flight by a case-by-case basis.
With files from Jamie Smith.
