Family Smokes On Plane, Forces Flight To Land

A family who smoked on a recent Canadian flight forced the plane to make an unexpected landing in Bermuda.

The Sunwing flight was headed from Halifax to Punta Cana when the incident took place. According to MyFox8, the family of three refused to put out their cigarettes. This left the pilot no choice but to make an unscheduled pit stop to kick the smokers off the plane.

Once the flight landed in Bermuda, authorities reportedly swooped in and placed the family under arrest.

The CBC reports that the altercation escalated when the flight staff asked the family to put out their cigarettes. All of them were reportedly smoking in the plane’s restroom. It didn’t take long for the confrontation to escalate to shouting and yelling.

One person aboard the flight described the situation as follows:

“They were smoking in the plane’s washroom and when they came out they got into a little bit of an argument with the attendants. They couldn’t say where they put their cigarette butts and that caused a bit of a commotion, I guess. From there it kind of escalated with the father, the mother and the son.”

Inspector Paul Simons said that he couldn’t confirm any details about the family’s nationality. However, he explained that “it appeared to be a father, a mother, and a son. The parents appear to be in their 50s. The son, I believe, is around 22 or so.”

Since the family refused to tell police if they had stashed any other cigarettes on the plane, the flight was grounded so everything could be thoroughly inspected by the crew. As a result, the airline had to put all 170 passengers in a hotel for the evening.

What do you think should happen to the mother, father, and son who refused to stop smoking on the flight to Punta Cana?

[Image by Wikimedia Commons]