A 25-year-old Canadian man with a history of mental illness has been charged with four criminal counts after his bizarre behavior forced a Sunwing flight to return to Toronto for an emergency landing on Friday.
Ali Shahi was charged late Friday with mischief to property, mischief interfering with the lawful enjoyment of property, uttering threats and endangering the safety of an aircraft.
After going an irate rant and shouting 'I just want to bomb Canada,' according to witnesses, Shahi's tirade forced the pilot of a Panama City-bound flight to head back to Toronto. The airliner was accompanied by two U.S. F-16 fighter jets, CBC News reported.
Dramatic video showed heavily armed officers storming the plane once it touched down on Canadian soil, screaming 'Heads down! Hands up!'
Shahi's father, who did not want his named used, said his son has a long history of mental illness and that his family had tried more than 23 times to get help from law enforcement officers.
Shahi was being held Saturday pending a bail hearing.
Frightened passengers were herded off the plane and placed on a later flight to Panama.
But their traveling nightmare didn't end there. That flight was forced to make an emergency landing in Jamaica Friday night after a passenger fainted and sustained a head injury.
After a delay of more than an hour, the jet took off for Panama and landed safely.
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