Man taken into custody Saturday at Kelowna Airport
By Nelson Daily Staff
RCMP took into custody a man Saturday at the Kelowna airport after emergency crews were placed on standby following a threat against an Edmonton-Kelowna-Calgary WestJet flight.
RCMP, firefighters and paramedics responded to the Kelowna Airport around noon.
“The threat itself, I can’t divulge the nature of the threat, was specific to a departing flight,” RCMP Const. Kris Clark said Saturday in media scrum.
“Once it landed, it was held away from the terminal.”
RCMP said the threat was directed against the flight to Calgary, but primarily inconvenienced passengers from Edmonton coming into Kelowna on the same plane.
RCMP, along with a police service dog, searched the plane and the passengers’ luggage.
The luggage of the passengers who were preparing to board the flight was searched as well.
“Nothing of note was found,” Clark said.
“We are confident that the threat was not confirmed,” Clark added. “The investigation is ongoing and a person of interest has been taken into custody.”
The man arrested at the airport has not been charged.
The recent terror attacks at the Parliament building in Ottawa and in Montreal did not influence how authorities reacted to the incident.
“This is something we are trained for,” Clark said.
“There are policies and procedures are in place for instances just like this and those policies and procedures were activated.”
The flight landed safely at the Kelowna International Airport, but was directed to the far end of the runway away from the main terminal.
The plane was eventually released.
The name of the man has not been released.
