Airline calls RCMP to deal with “unruly” Winnipeg-Iqaluit passenger

Keewatin Air and the RCMP have yet to comment on a report filed with Transport Canada about an unruly passenger aboard a Keewatin Air flight that landed Nov. 13 in Iqaluit. (FILE PHOTO)

An “unruly” passenger on a Keewatin Air Learjet flight from Winnipeg to Iqaluit Nov. 13 posed a threat to the safety of the aircraft, says a Nov. 18 Civil Aviation Daily Occurrence Report System report filed with Transport Canada.

“The RCMP was present on arrival. No impact to operations,” the CADORS report says.

The flight’s pilot radioed a message called “PAN PAN,” not long before the plane landed in Iqaluit.

That radio message, according to Transport Canada, “indicates a condition that concerns the safety of an aircraft… or of some person on board,” but does not indicate the need for immediate assistance.

A radioed message of “MAY DAY,” by contrast, “indicates imminent and grave danger,” Transport Canada’s CADORS website says.

Neither the RCMP nor Keewatin Air returned requests for more information before press time.

But it’s certainly not the first time an “unruly” passenger has caused a headache for everybody else on a flight in Nunavut.

One woman, flying from Yellowknife to Kugluktuk in March 2014, got drunk in the airplane’s bathroom before injuring a flight attendant and becoming “unruly.”

She was sentenced to three days in jail after being convicted of multiple offences under the Canadian Aeronautics Act.

And in 2013, the “unruly behaviour” of a British man, flying on Air Transat from Vancouver to London, U.K., caused his flight to land in Iqaluit and spent nine days in jail until being convicted under the same Act and fined about $14,000.

It’s not clear yet if the Nov. 13 incident on board the Keewatin Air flight will result in any charges.