Drama on Sunwing flight – three persons detained by police

Drama!

That is one word that can be used to describe a flight that originated in Toronto on the night of Saturday, December 16 and ended at the Argyle International Airport (AIA) on the morning of Sunday, December 17, with three persons being detained by airport security personnel for fighting.

A passenger on the chartered Sunwing WG262 said from the start, the flight was very different from the norm, as many of the approximately 181 passengers turned up at Pearson International Airport with an extraordinary amount of luggage.

The passenger said the excess and overweight luggage caused a two-hour delay, as extra time was needed during check in, with passengers being required to remove items from their bags and redistribute the weight in their checked and carry-on luggage.

“It was a very different atmosphere from any flight I have been on, ever. At the same time, I guess people were excited about being on a direct flight to St Vincent.”

The boarding procedure was also lengthy and the luggage once again became an issue, as the overhead storage bins quickly filled up and carry-ons had to be taken away for storage in the cargo hold of the aircraft.

The passenger, a national of St Vincent and the Grenadines, added that as passengers began settling down and the seat belt sign was turned on, a female passenger got out of her seat and demanded to use the bathroom.

The woman is said to have refused to return to her seat, even as the cabin staff told her that she could not use the bathroom because the plane was about to take off. According to our source, the passenger lifted up her skirt, demanded paper and threatened to relieve herself in the aisle. As a result, she was allowed to use the bathroom as the plane taxied.

“I did not envy the staff; it was a challenging flight to manage,” the source told SEARCHLIGHT.

There were no other incidents during the flight, but on arrival at the AIA at around 5 a.m., the drama resumed as passengers rushed to disembark.

An exchange of words between two passengers resulted in blows being landed and as a result, three passengers (a Vincentian couple and a Jamaican man) were detained by security officers and taken to the Stubbs Police Station.

On arrival at the station and after a short investigation, the three were given medical forms to take to their doctors to be filled out, to determine if to proceed with the matter criminally, but up to press time, only the Vincentian couple had returned their forms to the police.

The passenger interviewed by SEARCHLIGHT said the behaviour exhibited by some of the passengers was “so ridiculous” that she was “embarrassed to say the least, as a Vincentian.”

“There was a lot of drama…it seems to me that many people hadn’t travelled in a while. People just seemed excited. There was lots of overweight, a lot of people were charged for overweight. It was very different from any flight I had ever been on,” said the passenger, who added that it was a blessing that there did not appear to be too many non-West Indians on the flight.

The passenger, however, was high in praise for the work done to market the destination in Canada, particularly mentioning the work of Shelley John, director of Sales (Canada) at the St Vincent and the Grenadines Tourism Authority.

Additional Sunwing charters from Toronto to the AIA will arrive here on December 24, January 7, January 14, April 25, May 9, May 23, June 6, June 20, June 27, July 4, July 11, July 18, July 25, August 8, August 22 and August 29, 2018.(LC)