Air Canada flight to Brazil returns to Toronto over security issue
Posted June 19, 2014 4:48 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A man at the center of a security issue that prompted Air Canada to return a flight en route to Brazil back to Pearson airport, was questioned, released and allowed back on the flight bound for Sao Paulo on Thursday morning, Peel police say.
The man, whose name wasn’t disclosed, wasn’t arrested and won’t face charges, police say. Earlier, police told 680News he may have left the security zone to have a cigarette before boarding his flight to Brazil.
Air Canada spokesman Peter Fitzpatrick said Flight AC 090 from Toronto to Sao Paulo — which had 189 passengers onboard — took off at 11:30 p.m. Wednesday.
He said it was later suspected that one of its passengers had boarded without being properly screened.
The plane was en route to Sao Paulo and had been in the air for four hours when the airline was notified of the suspected security breach. Transport Canada ordered the aircraft, which was over Cuba at the time, to return to Toronto. The plane took a route that avoided American air space.
“It’s very disturbing,” said John Thomson, an air security expert at the security think-tank Mackenzie Institute. “(In this situation) for a plane to get in the air it means people were asleep at the switch.”
“His going out for a 35-cent cigarette may have resulted in $35,000,000 worth of activity.”
Fitzpatrick said the plane landed normally at 6:30 a.m. Thursday at Pearson airport.
Authorities had suspended all departing international flights from Terminal 1 while police searched for the male passenger late Wednesday.
Flights were given the all-clear about an hour later when the man was tracked down, and his boarding pass was shown to be valid.
The Greater Toronto Airport Authority published a statement regarding the incident, saying that it “takes all issues related to airport security very seriously, and as is routine, will complete an internal assessment. In the interim, enhanced security measures have been put in place. Given the incident involves airport security, we cannot share specific details.”
Airplane security has been enhanced since the incident.
With files from CityNews
