Fort MacMurray Airport, bomb comment

At approximately 12:30 pm yesterday the Fort MacMurray Airport was evacuated and operations ceased after a passenger made a bomb comment and the entire facility went into emergency response mode. According to the operations vice president of the Fort McMurray Airport Authority Bill Werny “A passenger on board an Air Canada aircraft uttered a comment (about) blowing the aircraft up that obviously precipitated a string of events.” RCMP Supt. Bob Couture stated “We have taken a male into custody in response to some comments made that he had possibly a device on his person or a device within an aircraft that he was aboard. He is now facing an investigation and possible criminal charges.”

Bill Werny explained what happened at Fort MacMurray Airport after the bomb comment eas overheard. “The RCMP brought their dogs out, they did a sweep of the airplane, they did a sweep of the terminal, nothing was found. All the folks in the building, all the employees, concessionaires were all evacuated. The people on the airplane were evacuated on the ramp … (and) buses were ordered for people to keep warm in.” The incident caused delays for over 300 people and caused a plane full of passengers to be kept waiting on the runway. Joanne Barnes, the spokesperson for the Airport Authority, made the following statement “I’d like to say thank you to them for their patience, it’s a cold day and we recognize that. We apologize for the inconvenience and are grateful to them for understanding the situation.” Operations have resumed at the Fort MacMurray Airport.