Two fighter jets were scrambled to escort a plane after one of its passengers threatened to blow it up – because the duty-free items he wanted were not on sale.

The F-16s joined Sunwing Airlines flight 772 an hour after it took off from Pearson International Airport in Toronto as a ‘precaution’ following threats made to the aircraft.

A passenger told CityNews that a man became angry at a flight attendant who told him certain duty free items he wanted were not for sale, saying that he had a bomb and everyone on the plane would die.

Armed officers boarded the plane in Toronto (Picture: William Alphonso/Facebook)

‘He wanted to buy some stuff with the duty-free, and he said to the girl, “Cigarettes”, or something like this. And she said, “Sorry, we don’t have this on Sunwing Airlines”,’ he said.




After 45 minutes in the air, the Panama-bound flight turned around and landed back in Toronto, where armed officers boarded the flight and removed 25-year-old Canadian Ali Shahi, the man who had allegedly made the threats.

Mr Shahi has since been charged and is in custody.

No one was harmed and a 25-year-old man was arrested (Picture: William Alphonso/Facebook)

The scare comes after a series of tragic air disasters around the world that have claimed 462 lives.

Since last week, Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down over Ukraine, an Air Algerie jetliner crashed in a rainstorm over Mali and a TransAsia Airways flight went during a storm.