Kelowna Airport: Man in custody after Edmonton-Kelowna-Calgary flight threatened

One man was taken into custody at the Kelowna airport after emergency crews were placed on standby following a threat against an Edmonton-Kelowna-Calgary WestJet flight.

At a news conference late Saturday, Kelowna RCMP said the threat was directed against the flight to Calgary, but primarily inconvenienced passengers from Edmonton coming into Kelowna on the same plane.

The flight landed safely at the Kelowna International Airport, but was directed to the far end of the runway away from the main terminal.

Emergency crews were called to the airport and placed on standby.

The airport tweeted it was dealing with a reported incident involving "a specific plane."

More than two hours after the flight landed safely, CBC Kelowna reporter Brady Strachan was in the airport lobby when a man was taken into custody.

"Two police officers were speaking with a man and then handcuffed that man and led him past me into a secure area behind a door," he said.

"About 10 minutes later, six or seven officers went into that room. Airport passengers said they spent two hours inside the plane on the tarmac after it landed, not knowing what was going on."

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Passengers told CBC News they were moved onto a bus, where they waited for another hour before being taken to the airport terminal.

Airport officials said a sniffer dog team was going through the passengers' bags but RCMP would not confirm reports they were bomb-sniffing dogs.

RCMP said they searched the plane, searched both the luggage destined for Calgary and the luggage coming from Edmonton, and also held passengers coming in from Edmonton.

The plane was eventually released.

The RCMP said the man they took into custody is a "person of interest." His name has not been released.