Maskless Influencers Seen Vaping & Partying On Plane In Viral Video – Airlines Have Canceled Their Return Flights
In the middle of a pandemic.
A video posted of maskless passengers drinking, vaping, and partying aboard a Canadian charter flight is causing outrage and elicited an investigation.
The group included several social media influencers, some of whom have appeared on Canadian reality shows.
The videos show the passengers not wearing their masks while in close proximity to one another, singing and dancing in the aisle seats, vaping, and passing around a large bottle of alcohol.
The Canadian influencers are being criticized for the video.
The passengers had been aboard a Sunwing Airlines flight from Montreal to Cancun on December 30, and are reportedly still trapped in Cancun as several Canadian airlines are refusing to fly the group back home.
Both Air Transat and Air Canada have followed Sunwing’s decision to not fly the passengers back to Montreal.
The flight attendants on board had also avoided the cabin for most of the flight due to the maskless, rowdy passengers.
"The behavior of a group of passengers was unruly and contravened several Canadian Aviation Regulations as well as public health regulations, prompting an investigation by Sunwing Airlines' security department and an initial notification from Sunwing Airlines to Transport Canada,” Sunwing Airlines told Insider.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also called the group of passengers out for their behavior, calling the incident a “slap in the face.”
"Like Canadians who have seen those videos, I'm extremely frustrated," Trudeau said. "This is a situation Transport Canada takes extremely seriously and we are following up."
"It's a slap in the face to see people putting themselves, their fellow citizens and airline workers at risk by being completely irresponsible," he added, as COVID-19 cases continue to rise because of the omicron variant.
Air Transat issued a statement on Twitter, citing an obligation to passenger and crew safety in denying the “disruptive passengers” a way home.
Air Canada also issued a statement with the same message, saying that they would be denying flights home “to the extent that we can identify the passengers who were part of the group."
The 111 Private Club, which refers to itself as “an exclusive private group (by invitation only), took credit for the passenger’s trip to Mexico for New Year’s, calling it the “best event of the year.”
According to the Vancouver Sun, the 111 Private Club also posted a screenshot of an article about the flight, writing under the post, “we made it to the news.”
James William Awad, who runs the company, posted a statement to Twitter saying he’s taking this matter seriously and that “a simple party on a plane did all this buzz.”
Rebecca St. Pierre, a 19-year-old student from Quebec, was one of the passengers aboard the flight and told the Vancouver Sun that she is now stranded in Mexico with no way to get home.
She told the news outlet that she’s contracted COVID-19 and estimates that around 30 others in the group have also tested positive.
St. Pierre said she had been on the flight after winning a free trip contest on Instagram courtesy of Awad.
According to Canada's Minister of Transport Omar Alghabra, Minister of Health Jean-Yves Duclos, and Minister of Public Safety Marco Mendicino, all of the passengers on the flight can possibly face fines up to $5,000 CAD for each individual violation.
Nia Tipton is a writer living in Brooklyn. She covers pop culture, social justice issues, and trending topics. Follow her on Instagram.