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Swoop airlines passengers who had to make an emergency landing in Regina late Wednesday night spent much of Thursday stranded in the city.
Passengers at the airport early Thursday morning didn’t want to be interviewed, but they confirmed being told by the flight crew that the plane had to land in Regina because of smoke in the cabin.
A group of four men thought it may have come from someone lighting up a cigarette on the aircraft.
At about noon on Thursday, Swoop issued a statement via email about the landing.
It confirmed that the pilot landed the plane in Regina “due to cigarette smoke coming from an undetermined source in the cabin.” The company said the flight crew couldn’t find the source of the cigarette smoke.
“Swoop is currently working with authorities, and select travellers were interviewed given smoking is illegal on any aircraft,” the statement said.
By 6 a.m., WestJet customer service workers had started booking them into hotels in the city; WestJet owns Swoop.
Regina airport president James Bogusz said fire crews came to the airport after the plane landed as a precautionary measure.
“We’re very fortunate that there was no incident at the airport, other than the mutual aid and responders coming as a just in case,” Bogusz said.
A man in the group of four said their rebooked flights won’t leave Regina until 9:30 p.m. on Thursday.
All four said it was stressful and frustrating to be given little info about the cause of the landing and what the next steps would be to fix the situation.
A 980 CJME listener texted the newsroom to say there were 173 passengers on the flight.
Bogusz said Swoop flights normally don’t fly into or out of the Regina airport.
“This is what we call a diversion,” he said. “Our airport is open 24 hours a day if there’s an emergency. And this is an example of that, where an aircraft was in the area and they required an emergency landing.”
Swoop provided hotel stays and meal vouchers for the stranded passengers. The company said it rebooked them “on a WestJet flight today to Edmonton.”
— With files from 980 CJME’s Joseph Ho
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