The 2022 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships recently had to be canceled after just a few days due to cases of COVID-19 among the teams involved. This meant that the 10 squads had to return home early. However, the Russian and Czech U20s were delayed on their return trip, after being removed from their flight for violating Air Canada's mask policy.
What should have been an early trip home
The 2022 IIHF World U20 Championship began in Canada on December 26th, 2021. Dual-hosted in the Alberta cities of Edmonton and Red Deer, 10 teams qualified for the winter showdown. While the first two days passed without incident, national squads began reporting positive COVID-19 cases on December 28th and 29th, suspending the tournament.
Discussions regarding the resumption of the championship look set to occur this month. However, in the short term, there was nothing for the teams to do but head home.
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For the Russian team, The Hockey News reports that this should have taken place overnight on Friday, December 31st. The first leg was an Air Canada service from Calgary to Frankfurt. Also onboard were players from the Czech squad, according to The Calgary Herald.
Deplaned for mask policy violations
The flight in question appears to have been AC848, a regularly scheduled service operated by Air Canada's Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners. According to data from RadarBox.com, this flight has a scheduled departure time of 17:45. With a planned duration of nine hours and 20 minutes, its scheduled arrival time in Frankfurt is at 11:05 local time (the following morning).
However, on December 31st, this service was the subject of lengthy delays. Reports in the aforementioned publications and on social media tell a story of disruption caused by the homeward-bound hockey players. The athletes were refusing to comply with Air Canada's mask policy, despite their sport requiring the use of far more substantial headgear.
There were also reports of players attempting to smoke onboard, and not following cabin crew instructions. This ultimately led to the entire flight being deplaned after police had to attend the scene. Following this, the offending players couldn't come back onboard.
A lengthy delay
The Calgary Herald notes that Czech manager Otakar Černý protested innocence on the side of his players. He asserts that the team were only prevented from boarding due to wearing similar sweatshirts to the Russian side. Speaking to iDnes.cz, he stated that:
"They threw us into the same bag as the Russians and told us that the entire party could no longer board the plane. Air Canada apologized to us and, at their expense, arranged a hotel and a flight to Frankfurt at the same time a day later. They also assured us that we would not fly the same flight as the Russian players."
Regardless of who was to blame, the incident significantly delayed the flight and its remaining passengers. Data from RadarBox shows that the service eventually departed over three-and-a-half hours late, at 21:19 local time. It touched down three hours and 10 minutes behind schedule in Frankfurt the following afternoon, at 14:10 local time.
Simple Flying has contacted Air Canada for further information regarding this incident.
What do you make of this incident? Were you onboard the delayed Calgary-Frankfurt flight? Let us know your thoughts and experiences in the comments.