Two female Passengers charged after sunwing flight diverts

[cdnpilot77]

WATCH: Peel Police Constable George Tudos provides an update on two arrests aboard a Sunwing flight from Toronto to Cuba Wednesday night.

TORONTO – Two female passengers are facing multiple charges after a Sunwing Airlines flight to Cuba was forced to return to Toronto Pearson International Airport Wednesday night.

Peel Regional Police arrested 25-year-old Lilia Ratmanski from Whitby and 26-year-old Milana Muzikante from Vaughan when a Sunwing plane diverted back to Toronto following a disruption on board.


In an email to Global News, a Sunwing spokesperson said that the two passengers had reportedly “consumed a significant quantity of their duty-free alcohol purchase in the lavatory and lit a cigarette.”

The spokesperson also said the two allegedly triggered the smoke alarm, got into a physical altercation with each other, and made a threat against the plane.

Concerned over their actions, the pilot decided to return to Toronto mid-flight.

Two military planes escorted the flight back, which originally left Toronto at 4:30 p.m., and landed at Pearson’s Terminal 1 around 8:27 p.m.

Both female passengers face charges of smoking on board an aircraft, endangering safety of an aircraft , mischief endangering safety, and uttering threats.


NORAD said it scrambled CF-18 fighter jets based out of Bagotville, Que. to escort the plane back to the airport.

Major Julie Roberge, a spokeswoman for NORAD based in Colorado Springs, Colo., said the CF-18s met the aircraft at the Canadian border and did not venture into American airspace.

With a file from The Canadian Press

© Shaw Media, 2014

[YYZSaabGuy]

In other coverage, a Sunwing Vice President supposedly confirmed in an email to The Canadian Press that "the threat was considered non-credible given the condition of the passengers."
Assuming that's correct, why return all the way to Pearson, and why scramble the CF18s?

[cdnpilot77]

Presumably thing would be drastically more complex if they landed in Cuba to have the passengers detained and they were enroute to Cuba, so short of a catastrophic emergency, landing in the US would be almost entirely off limits. 2 hours into the flight, there wasn't much flight left either.

[PilotDAR]

I hope these silly people are the subject of some severe penalties, to demonstrate to the passenger community that this is not tolerable. At the very least, I think they have some considerable civil liability for the turn around of the flight costs, and delaying all the other passengers.

[floats4fun]

Maybe it's worth spending a little more for your vacation. Stay
classy sunwing, and the TPT you drag around.

[YYZSaabGuy]

Presumably thing would be drastically more complex if they landed in Cuba to have the passengers detained and they were enroute to Cuba, so short of a catastrophic emergency, landing in the US would be almost entirely off limits. 2 hours into the flight, there wasn't much flight left either.

That's what I'm questioning: why would landing in the U.S. and deplaning these two idiots not have been an option for the crew?

And if that truly was not possible for some reason, then why not have the Cuban authorities deal with them at the other end?

[cdnpilot77]

The US does not like surprise visits. I suspect that the delay of landing in the US would probably would have been significantly more than the delay of coming back to Toronto, including getting another crew should authorities have decided to hang on to the airplane for a while. I don't think it would have been as simple as just dropping off the implicated passengers and carrying on.

Now, to your point about the VP, how is a comment like that in any way shape or form backing up your pilots and their decision making? Keep your mouth shut in the media and discuss it internally. You should always show confidence in your crews if you want the paying public to have confidence in them!

[linecrew]

Quite a ways into the flight when they turned around. Lousy scenario for the pax/crew either on board or waiting in Cuba to come home.

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/SWG6 ... /CYYZ/MUMZ

[cdnpilot77]

Wow, That's a pretty direct track back to YYZ. Authorities don't (and shouldn't) take any threat to the aircraft lightly despite what that VP has to say.

[Old fella]

This security shit is getting quite silly (CF-18) escort back because a couple of bimbos quaffed a little too much wine, had a draw, and then proceeded to have a cat-fight. Wouldn’t it have been better to continue on to Cuba (Tie these silly bimbos in their seats for remainder of flight, gotta be a few burly males on board), then let the Cuban authorities deal with it. At that point these bimbos are on their own, dealing with Cuban law and Sunwing isn’t responsible for their return to Canada. Matter of fact Sunwing could bar them from ever travelling on their flights for good………….

[Pop n Fresh]

Presumably thing would be drastically more complex if they landed in Cuba to have the passengers detained and they were enroute to Cuba, so short of a catastrophic emergency, landing in the US would be almost entirely off limits. 2 hours into the flight, there wasn't much flight left either.

That's what I'm questioning: why would landing in the U.S. and deplaning these two idiots not have been an option for the crew?

And if that truly was not possible for some reason, then why not have the Cuban authorities deal with them at the other end?

I have no idea how it would be worded but I think you cannot fly an aircraft from the US to Cuba.

Years ago there was an extra part of the AIM that was a letter stating something like, "No Canadian pilot shall act as a crew member of a plane with a known final destination of Libya. No aircraft of Canadian origin may fly to Libya." It went on to restrict any parts of an aircraft from Canada entering Libya.

As far as I know Cuban citizens are still not allowed to enter the US under normal circumstances. And if you had a US citizen going to Cuba when they were not supposed to there would certainly be an issue there.

Just a few theories leading me to believe, you might not be able to leave for quite some time while sorting things out if you landed in the US. Maybe several days. Not great customer service to accidentally get a US citizen or dual Cuba/US citizen in trouble. Maybe they live in the US, travel to Canada to travel back to Cuba to see family on separate passports.

If you went back you could let the Canadian police arrest the morons, refuel, possibly switch a few crew members and get on with the delayed flight.

As for dropping off the two culprits in Cuba where they might get in much more trouble, unable to return without months of court etc. It might initially seem like a good way to get the, "Don't be a drunken Buffoon on a Canadian airplane." message across. Then again, I don't want to pay the extra taxes when our government decides to to rescue them, and I typically don't even mind the idea of paying a bit more tax to build better hospitals and roads.

I guess I just wasted a bunch of your time to say I think the crew did the right thing this time.

[Chris M]

I was wondering why two CF-18s flew over my house last night. Pretty unusual to see them over Toronto, although I thought it might have been airshow related.

[cyeg66]

Scrambling Hornets? Really? For two drunk bimbos? Did they almost breach the cockpit door? Did they say they had a bomb on board? I don't think so. Pretty extreme measure for a couple of fawking d-bags that can't handle their liquor. As these incidents are (still) painfully commonplace, the more I become convinced that flying and the sales of and/or consumption of alcohol should become prohibited. For FFS, what's wrong with this picture? Screwing over 150+ people for the sake of a few? Sounds like a microcosm of Federal government. Does that make it ok? The cost of the Hornet intercept (taking everything into account) has to have cost taxpayers on the north side of $200k.... Nice.

[rxl]

These 2 lovely young ladies should be held liable for ALL costs incurred by the other passengers, by Sunwing and us, the taxpayers.
I also agree with the poster above - booze has no place on an airplane.

[YYZSaabGuy]

I guess I just wasted a bunch of your time to say I think the crew did the right thing this time.

Nope, not a waste of time at all: your logic about landing in Cuba direct from the U.S., makes sense, although I'm not convinced that continuing direct to Cuba and letting the local police deal with them would've been a bad approach either. And I'm still not sure, as others have pointed out, that contacting NORAD to report that the aircraft was "under threat" and scrambling a couple of CF18s made a lot of sense - as noted, these two idiots were almost certainly in no condition to pose any serious threat to the safety of flight. I suspect that'll be up for discussion between the crew and Sunwing management.

[teacher]

It's pretty simple actually. You can't fly from the United States to Cuba unless the flight is specifically premitted by the U.S.

[cdnpilot77]

these two idiots were almost certainly in no condition to pose any serious threat to the safety of flight.

Easy to say in hindsight and we weren't there as it was happening. They used to also think box cutters were harmless on an airplane.

[FenderManDan]

These 2 lovely young ladies should be held liable for ALL costs incurred by the other passengers, by Sunwing and us, the taxpayers.
I also agree with the poster above - booze has no place on an airplane.

I agree with your sentiment, however did you travel on Sunwing to Cuba? This travel combo attracts particular riff-raff. I don't like to stereotype but I have seen it with my own eyes two times I travelled there with the same arrangement and I am surprised this type of incident does not happen more often. I like Cuba beaches to price ratio and now since Westjet goes there I am good .

Scrambling cf-18, now that is interesting. I would like to hear what triggered that.

Correct me if I am wrong but I thought the skipper can make an arrest?
Can the skipper also smack them around for resisting arrest ?

[whiteguy]

Presumably thing would be drastically more complex if they landed in Cuba to have the passengers detained and they were enroute to Cuba, so short of a catastrophic emergency, landing in the US would be almost entirely off limits. 2 hours into the flight, there wasn't much flight left either.

That's what I'm questioning: why would landing in the U.S. and deplaning these two idiots not have been an option for the crew?

And if that truly was not possible for some reason, then why not have the Cuban authorities deal with them at the other end?

I have no idea how it would be worded but I think you cannot fly an aircraft from the US to Cuba.

Years ago there was an extra part of the AIM that was a letter stating something like, "No Canadian pilot shall act as a crew member of a plane with a known final destination of Libya. No aircraft of Canadian origin may fly to Libya." It went on to restrict any parts of an aircraft from Canada entering Libya.

As far as I know Cuban citizens are still not allowed to enter the US under normal circumstances. And if you had a US citizen going to Cuba when they were not supposed to there would certainly be an issue there.

Just a few theories leading me to believe, you might not be able to leave for quite some time while sorting things out if you landed in the US. Maybe several days. Not great customer service to accidentally get a US citizen or dual Cuba/US citizen in trouble. Maybe they live in the US, travel to Canada to travel back to Cuba to see family on separate passports.

If you went back you could let the Canadian police arrest the morons, refuel, possibly switch a few crew members and get on with the delayed flight.

As for dropping off the two culprits in Cuba where they might get in much more trouble, unable to return without months of court etc. It might initially seem like a good way to get the, "Don't be a drunken Buffoon on a Canadian airplane." message across. Then again, I don't want to pay the extra taxes when our government decides to to rescue them, and I typically don't even mind the idea of paying a bit more tax to build better hospitals and roads.

I guess I just wasted a bunch of your time to say I think the crew did the right thing this time.

There are regular charter flights that operate from Florida to Cuba. Charters can also be operated from LA and NY and 8 other airports in the US.

[Krimson]

Scrambling Hornets? Really? For two drunk bimbos? Did they almost breach the cockpit door? Did they say they had a bomb on board

I believe there was reference to a bomb on board. I don't think it would be credible, considering their state, but once you start making threats to the aircraft, the gears are already in motion...

[midwingcrisis]

Wonder how many persona non grata to the US were on board? That would have been tense moments for sure. I understand those 2 ladies are frequent travelers on the rabble flights

[pelmet]

So what is the deal. Can you just continue to Cuba and have them arrested there?

[Illya Kuryakin]

So what is the deal. Can you just continue to Cuba and have them arrested there?

That's what I would have done. Were they actually a threat? Or a PITA? I suggest they overreacted. They wouldn't have enjoyed Cuba's hospitality very much.....and who's going to fly them home?
Illya

[ahramin]

While scrambling fighters is obviously part and parcel of the current nonsensical lack of thinking that characterizes everything to do with aviation security, keep in mind that it's not like we have much else to do with these fighters. Intercept skills must be practiced or lost, so it isn't a waste of taxpayer money to scramble fighters in cases like this.

Is it obviously a false alarm demonstrating the incompetence of the security regime? Yes.

Is it a good training exercise? Yes

[JohnnyHotRocks]

It's pretty simple actually. You can't fly from the United States to Cuba unless the flight is specifically premitted by the U.S.

It happens all the time. In fact, there are more flights from Miami to Cuba than from YYZ

http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=97556