An man from the U.S. is in custody after customs officials found a fake bomb in a suitcase at Pearson International Airport Thursday, holding up a planeload of Chicago-bound passengers for hours.

The fake improvised explosive device (IED), was discovered during a pre-clearance inspection of a traveller’s suitcase, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) told the Star in a statement Thursday.

United Airlines flight 547 was scheduled to leave for Chicago O’Hare International Airport at 7 a.m. Customs officials halted the flight for what Peel Regional Police first described as a “possible security breach.”

“CBP officers immediately notified Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA), who swabbed the mock IED for explosives with a negative result,” the statement read.

“For the safety of travellers within the pre-clearance facility, CBP stopped all traveller processing while the mock IED was tested.”

Peel police confirmed around midday that U.S. citizen Joseph Galaska, 58, had been detained and charged with mischief. He’s currently in custody for a bail hearing, the date of which has yet to be determined, said Peel police.

The investigation left anxious passengers stuck in the airplane for hours.

“We were told that a passenger boarded our flight from a (Sao Paulo, Brazil) flight, and their checked baggage was not cleared, so the entire flight is now tainted,” Joe Sturonas, a passenger on the flight, told the Star.

Dal Gemmell, another passenger on board, said there hadn’t been any sort of disturbance on the plane before it was stopped, and that everyone was fine. Passengers were told that U.S. authorities “revoked” their privileges to enter the U.S., he said.

Gemmell said passengers were initially told RCMP dogs would be brought on board to search the plane but that didn’t appear to have happened.

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Instead, passengers exited through the rear of the plane and were bussed to an isolation area, where they were re-screened. U.S customs officials also inspected the aircraft, a statement said.

Customs officials said the flight was cleared to leave at noon, about five hours after it was supposed to depart. However, passengers weren’t allowed to leave for about another hour.

Though information on the Pearson website said the flight was delayed until 4 p.m., passenger Greg Corbett told the Star he was told to wait in line to rebook his own flight, and that it was a “very frustrating” situation.

Peel police said the situation didn’t present any risk to public safety or impact other processes at the airport. All operations at Pearson are now back to normal, a U.S. customs spokesperson said.