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Team Rush First Plane


After already being delayed once due to an alleged bomb threat, emergency landing and a SWAT team response, passengers en route to Panama City on a Canadian passenger jet were delayed again after a passenger fainted.

Sunwing Flight 772 was forced to land in Jamaica after a passenger fainted and sustained a minor head injury. The flight was on the ground for an hour and the passenger was taken to a local hospital, according to CTV News.

The pit stop was just the most recent delay for the passengers aboard the Sunwing Flight. On Friday morning, the plane’s initial flight to Panama City was thwarted after a passenger allegedly threatened the aircraft.

The aircraft was forced turn around in the skies above West Virginia and return to Toronto Pearson International Airport after a traveler became "agitated," according to a Sunwing spokeswoman.

Two American F-16 fighter jets escorted the flight into Canadian airspace as it landed. Video shot by passengers revealed the Canadian SWAT team charged aboard the plane.

"Heads down! hands up!" the military team screamed as they entered the plane to apprehend the suspect.

Toronto police identified the suspect as 25-year-old Ali Shahi, of Canada, and said he faces charges of uttering threats and endangering the safety of an aircraft.

"He basically just tore a strip off her [the flight attendant], explaining how expensive the cigarettes are here in Canada, he hates Canada," passenger Bettina Bathe told CTV News. "Then he said, with great expression using his hands, 'I just want to bomb Canada.'"

Capt. Jennifer Stadnyk of the Northern American Aerospace Defense Command said the two F-16s escorted the plane as a "precaution."

After being delayed in Jamaica for an hour the passengers were back in the air on their way to Panama City, according to CTV.

The Sky is Falling

Sounds to me that the passenger they called the SWAT on was unruly and definitely had no business being around people, he was hardly a threat worthy of turning the plane around.

I mean, yes, he said he wanted to blow up Canada, and that is grounds for "terroristic threats" charges and probably more, considering Canada's one of those places where they'll arrest you for "threatening behaviour" if you sneeze and the sound startles the pigeons, but he was on a plane with no bomb and no weapon, and "terrorism" isn't exactly a crime of passion, where you just get so fed up that you jump up from your seat and blow up a plane, it's a crime that requires planning and malice aforethought, whereas all his malice was there in the instant, where he was cut off from any ability to do anything about it.

In short, why not have an air marshal or Canadian equivalent ( Sky Moose? Royal Canadian Flying Kilted Yaksman? ) just cuff the ********, move him into holding at his destination, fly him back separately, then charge him for his crimes?