Panama bound plane gets F16 escorts after bomb threat

A PANAMA bound Sunwing passenger plane carrying holiday makers was forced to return to Toronto, Canada, escorted by U.S. fighter jets on Friday, July 25 after on board threats to its safety.

A CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) report said that a 25-year-old Canadian man has been charged after he allegedly made “direct threats” to the safety of a flight to Panama City, resulting in the plane returning to Toronto for an emergency landing.

Flight 772 turned around after 45 minutes in the air for the emergency landing at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport. It was escorted by two U.S. F-16 jets.

Ali Shahi, a Canadian citizen, has been charged with:

Mischief to property; Mischief interfering with the lawful enjoyment of property; Uttering threats and Endangering the safety of an aircraft;He is being held in custody until a bail hearing.

The two U.S. F-16 fighter jets from Toledo, Ohio, which were on a training exercse were dispatched to escort the plane back to Toronto, North American Aerospace Defence Command (Norad) confirmed. The F-16s flew with the commercial plane out of U.S. airspace to Toronto as a “precaution.”

Passengers filmed and photographed the police as they boarded the plane.

The RCMP (The “Mounties” Royal Canadian Mounted Police) took the lead on the investigation once the plane landed at Pearson at 8:55 a.m. ET.

Ali Shahi, who currently lives in Thunder Bay, Ontario, is alleged to have made a threat to Sunwing flight 772. (Ali Shahi/Facebook)

When the plane landed, a passenger on the plane said, five or six officers with guns drawn boarded the plane and removed Shahi.

Sharon Ramsay was on the flight, headed on vacation, with her two children. It was the first time they had been on a plane. Ramsay said she was crying while the arrest was taking place.

“It was extremely scary,” she said when the police stormed into the plane yelling ‘heads down hands up’.

“The kids were scared, I was scared.”The plane was over West Virginia when it turned around.

There were 181 passengers, two infants, two pilots and four flight attendants on board.

Most passengers left on another flight for Panama City later on Friday.

Newsroom Panama rcently carried news of a new Sunwing service to Panama:

http://newsroompanama.com/travel/world/once-a-week-flights-toronto-rio-hato-coming