Fake bomb threat forces Air Canada flight cancellation

Passengers on an Air Canada flight about to leave Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic for Montreal on Tuesday had their flight cancelled after a bomb scare delayed takeoff.

First reported by TVA Nouvelles, while in the plane, some passengers started receiving cartoon bomb photos and threatening messages via AirDrop, a system that allows images to be shared between Apple devices.

Passengers became distressed and found themselves stuck on board the aircraft for at least two hours without knowing what was going on.

As the incident was being looked into, and as a precaution, everyone was evacuated from the plane and the flight was eventually cancelled.

Passengers boarded another plane the following day.

Transport Canada deemed threat non-credible

Transport Canada confirmed to CityNews that Air Canada did contact them about a security threat on flight AC1297 Tuesday.

“Out of an abundance of caution, the passengers were deplaned and rescreened along with their baggage and no threat items were found,” Hicham Ayoun, senior communications advisor with Transport Canada told CityNews in a written statement.

As a result, the threat was deemed “non-credible after being assessed.”

Transport Canada also stated it takes these threats very seriously.

“Any actual, attempted, threatened or suspected unlawful act, which would cause an interference, breach or malfunction of the civil aviation security system is immediately investigated further.”

CityNews also reached out to Air Canada for a comment, but the airline has yet to provide a statement on the incident.