An Air Canada Flight To Montreal Was Cancelled After Passengers Were Sent A Picture Of A Bomb

An Air Canada flight from Punta Cana to Montreal was cancelled last week after several passengers received fake bomb pictures and threats before takeoff.

On Tuesday, March 8, flight AC1297 from the Dominican Republic was halted abruptly after the "security threat" forced the airline to take action.

One of the passengers on board told CTV News that travellers began getting out of their seats as the plane sat on the tarmac, sharing concerns as iPhones started receiving an AirDropped image.

AirDrop — a system built into Apple products — allows devices from the company to transfer files, like images, to others nearby.

According to the passengers, requests to share images were sent to multiple people on the flight, causing somebody to start crying, while a man apparently said, "There's a bomb, but no one in the plane is telling us anything."

CTV News reports that a picture of a bomb was among the files shared.

Another passenger told MTL Blog that they thought they may die on board, confirming that it took around two hours for the issue to be dealt with.

Police and detection dogs were reportedly involved, and those on board were asked to take their belongings and exit the plane.

While Air Canada says the threat was ultimately determined to be "non-credible," the flight was cancelled and passengers were rescheduled on other services.

The airline told MTL Blog the move was made "out of an abundance of caution" and said passengers and baggage were required to disembark and pass through security again.

The eventual cancellation was necessary, the carrier explained, "Due to the delays caused by this incident, particularly because the crew had exceeded the duty time permitted by law."

Air Canada says Transport Canada has been notified about what happened.

This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.