RCMP have determined the bomb threat that led to the evacuation of a WestJet flight travelling from Halifax to Calgary came from within Nova Scotia.
After searching the plane, Nova Scotia RCMP say they didn’t find evidence of a bomb on the plane which was set to fly out at 7:30 a.m.
WestJet flight 229 left Halifax Stanfield International Airport at 10:27 a.m.
“The threat was received at 6:41 a.m. When the threat was received people had boarded the plane,” said Const. Mark Skinner. “So it was simply a matter of just getting up and leaving the plane, it was still attached to the sky bridge.”
Six crew members and 69 passengers were removed from the plane, which was about about half full, Skinner said.
“At that point in time the airport authority was able to push the plane back away from the terminal and police were able to get on and start conducting a search,” he said.
Police finished searching the aircraft and luggage around 9:15 a.m. and say they found nothing dangerous.
Passengers then re-boarded the plane as it prepared to takeoff.
Police aren’t releasing any details about the origin of the bomb threat, but they say it wasn’t related to a bomb threat against at Turkish Airlines flight that was diverted to Halifax early Sunday morning.
No explosives were found on that plane either. The flight has now continued on its way to Istanbul.
“They’re two separate investigations in that respect, or at least we believe they’re different at this point in time,” said Skinner. “When a threat is received like this we need to treat it as a specific and credible threat until proven otherwise.”
Last week an Air France plane had to make a similar detour to Halifax because of a bomb threat. No bomb was discovered on that flight either.