{UAH} Sunwing passengers who forced flight to return to Toronto to pay $8,000
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© Provided by Free Daily News Group Inc Sunwing passengers who forced flight to return to Toronto to pay $8,000 Two GTA women were sentenced Tuesday for a 2014 incident on a Cuba-bound Sunwing airplane that sent fighter jets scrambling to escort the jet back to Toronto. They must pay a fine of $500 and restitution of $7,500 to Sunwing.
Earlier this year, Milana Muzikante and Lilia Ratmanski pleaded guilty at separate hearings to charges of mischief and smoking on an aircraft.
Immediately after the August 2014 incident, a Sunwing spokesperson alleged that Muzikante, then 26, and Ratmanski, then 25, drank a "significant quantity" of alcohol and lit a cigarette in the airplane washroom, which triggered the on-board smoke detector.
The women then allegedly got into a physical fight with each other and threatened the aircraft, which was en route to Cuba from Pearson International Airport. The pilot decided to turn the plane back to Toronto where the women were arrested shortly after landing, Torstar News Service reported at the time.
Muzikante and Ratmanski were charged with endangering the safety of an aircraft, mischief over $5,000, mischief endangering life and uttering threats. They were also charged with smoking on an aircraft, under the Canadian Aviation Regulations.
An agreed statement of facts is expected to be filed at today's hearing. The Crown is seeking a suspended sentence, while Muzikante's lawyer has told the court he will be asking for an absolute or conditional discharge.
The most serious charge the women faced was endangering the safety of an aircraft, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.
As part of their bail conditions, both women were forbidden from consuming, purchasing or possessing alcohol, being on an airplane or at an airport and communicating with the other.
The two women each studied nursing at York University. Muzikante graduated in 2014, earning a bachelor of science with honours and was listed as a member of the dean's honour roll.
The fighter jets were launched after Canada's NORAD sector in Winnipeg put in a call to the Royal Canadian Air Force base in Bagotville, Que., and ordered them to scramble two CF-18 fighter jets, NORAD spokesperson Wright Erubie told Torstar at the time.
"Just out of an abundance of caution, the NORAD jets were launched and monitored the situation from the air," said NORAD spokesperson U.S. army Capt. Ruth Castro.
The CF-18s met the Sunwing jet at the Canadian border after its pilot decided to turn around and go back to Pearson. The planes did not enter American airspace, according to a NORAD spokesperson, who said the escort lasted just four minutes.
Prior to Muzikante's plea, Ontario Court Justice Patrice Band warned Muzikante that she may be subject to a victim surcharge fee as well as restitution. The amount she would be expected to pay in restitution remains to be decided, and Sunwing will be consulted, court heard.
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