Canada Investigating Reports of Raucous Party on Flight

A group headed from Montreal to Cancun chartered the Sunwing Airline flight
By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 5, 2022 12:50 PM CST

There have been plenty of reports of atypical flights lately, but nothing quite like what allegedly happened on a Dec. 30 private charter flight from Montreal to Cancun. "I am aware of the reports of unacceptable behavior on a Sunwing flight," says Canada's Transport Minister, who says the country's transportation regulator has been tasked with probing reports that maskless passengers turned the plane into a party, or, as TMZ puts it, "raged in aisles." That regulator, Transport Canada, says passengers could see fines of up to about $4,000 per violation of airline regulations. CTV News reports word of the flight emerged after the Journal de Montreal obtained since-deleted videos on social media showing the partying.

TMZ reports the video shows "pure mayhem ... with folks smoking vapes, drinking booze and hoisting each other up for a little crowd surfing in the tightly packed area." The New York Post adds that others were seen posing with a full-size bottle of Grey Goose vodka. Sunwing Airlines backs up those reports, saying that a number of passengers displayed behavior that "was unruly and contravened several Canadian aviation regulations as well as public health regulations," per Reuters. The passengers were supposed to return to Montreal Wednesday, but Sunwing has canceled their flight.

The airline says in a statement the group was shown the terms and conditions required to board, and "unfortunately, the group did not accept all of the terms." But James William Awad, who booked the flight, tells CTV News the only condition he didn't agree to was that there would be no food on the five-hour flight. "It poses no concerns for flight safety,” he argued." He also alleges the airline supported the partying, selling them alcohol throughout the flight and never requesting that they stop vaping. (More airline passengers stories.)

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