02-05-2013 04:30 PM
Family of smokers on airplane forces costly diversion
The airline that was carrying a family of smokers who caused a Halifax flight to be diverted to Bermuda this weekend says it was a costly incident for everyone involved.
The Sunwing plane waits on the tarmack. (Courtesy of bernews.com)
A Sunwing flight travelling from Halifax to the Dominican Republic on Friday night had to make an emergency landing after passengers were found smoking in the plane's bathroom.
According to the Bermuda Police Service another passenger alerted the crew and the smokers became verbally abusive.
Police removed a mother, father and two sons, aged 16 and 22, from the flight.
"I cannot believe that passengers did this. I'll bet you it's been 20 years since smoking was allowed on an aircraft," said Daryl McWilliams, the vice-president of media relations with the airline.
"I couldn't believe it when I heard it. I said, 'No, no, what did you say?"
McWilliams said under Canadian transport regulations the plane needed to land at the nearest available airport, which happened to be Bermuda
'
Those people will never get on a Sunwing aircraft again.'—Daryl McWilliams
"We sent a mechanic down to Bermuda, because we wanted our own people to check the aircraft," McWilliams said.
Then "the people who were arrested refused to say if they had left other cigarettes on the aircraft, if they had hidden cigarettes on the aircraft. They were very uncooperative. So in addition to the technical things that had to be done, we had to search the aircraft thoroughly."
He said the plane had to be searched the same way they would search for contraband items.
By that time the crew members were out of flight time and had to be given a 12-hour break.
The rest of the plane's 170 passengers and crew were put up for the night in a hotel at Sunwing's expense.
McWilliams couldn't put a price to how much the diversion cost but said "this was a very expensive exercise for Sunwing."
"Those people will never get on a Sunwing aircraft again. There's no hope. We would have a record of what happened and we wouldn't carry them again."
The family of smokers is still in Bermuda. Police there have put them on conditional bail and they could be charged.
Police could not identify their nationality.
02-05-2013 04:39 PM
02-05-2013 04:41 PM
02-05-2013 07:52 PM
I say we hang them.
02-05-2013 09:03 PM
Smokers are like politicians. They seem to think they are entitled to smoke whenever and wherever they want. IMO, they should be find the total costs for this little fiasco.
We were talking (over a beer) the other night. Someone wondered how many cigarette butts were dropped on the ground every day? And, how many have been dropped in the last ten years. Nothing worse than getting a soggy cigarette butt on the bottom of your shoe.
Well, actually there is. I was at a party once. Set a bottle of beer on a table and went to the bathroom. When I came back, some smoker had dropped a butt in my beer. Realized it when I got halfway down. Almost puked.
I may have some bad habits, but I never smoked. Considering both my parents did, that is surprizing.
02-05-2013 09:05 PM
And 'hidden' cigarettes?.....you can take cigarettes on an aircraft (as far as I know) .....you just can't smoke them.
This does seem to be a bit of overkill. Maybe they thought they had left "lit" cigarettes hidden on the plane.
02-05-2013 09:20 PM
They seem to think they are entitled to smoke whenever and wherever they want.
It’s an addiction. No one wants to be around someone who hasn’t had a cig in 4 hours.
Someone wondered how many cigarette butts were dropped on the ground every day? And, how many have been dropped in the last ten years.
They’re all bio-degradable. What angers me is all the Tim Horton’s cups and the McDonald’s food bags you see on the side of the road everywhere you go. Nothing like driving down a pleasant country road and enjoying nature while you count the cups and bags thrown out of car windows by idiots!
A few years ago there was a guy I use to take to job sites and he had a habit of throwing his Tim cups out the window. Needless to say I gave him ……. and I would turn around for him to pick it up if it was safe to do so. I found out he had a habit of doing the same thing in other people’s trucks so I went to a Timmies and took out all the cups from a couple of garbage bins and then dumped them all in his car. He got the hint.
When I came back, some smoker had dropped a butt in my beer.
I use to know a fellow who would take out his false teeth and drop them in his glass when he went to the men’s room. No one ever stole his beer.
02-06-2013 05:35 PM
What angers me is all the Tim Horton’s cups and the McDonald’s food bags you see on the side of the road everywhere you go.
Yeah, not to mention the line-ups of vehicles idling at the drive-thrus.
Worse still, the whole plastic bottled water industry. Don't know if people saw the news today about the water level in Lakes Huron and Michigan at an all-time low - a lot of speculation that mega-multinational Nestle among the lesser known reasons behind this, shipping out water by the gazillions of litres, by pumping it out from underground pumps located just inland from Lake M. May start a thread on that if no one else does...
02-06-2013 06:15 PM
Hard to believe one company Nestle could lower the lakes so much. Might be possible, I don't know. I'm not a scientist in that area but something strange is definitely going on. All the lakes are attached in some degree and one would think they would all 'level' out equally. The stranger thing is they say Lake Huron is down to record levels yet the beach width looks the same and I go there on a regular basis......but the 'place where the boats are tied up'....is definetly down a lot.
02-06-2013 11:05 PM
They seem to think they are entitled to smoke whenever and wherever they want
Sadly I am a smoker but a respectful one atleast I do not smoke in my own home or in my car and stand outside in minus 40 to have my smokes as I find it is not fair for my kid but in all fairness 25 years ago doctors were having smokes well right you your prescription so even though this was stupid and wrong I think some people feel like THERE SMOKING RIGHTS HAVE BEEN TAKEN AWAY..
This is the craziest thing I have ever heard though wayyyyyyy overkill everything about it Like that lefty over cigarette was going to stab somone or just burst into flames and fill the plane with HCN..
This day and age people should know better but there will always be those people...
I hope these people are stuck in bermuda for a couple weeks enjoy the beautiful weather oooooooo what a punishment LOL
02-06-2013 11:19 PM
How things have changed! I have been watching some old Dean Martin "roasts" on YouTube and almost everyone on the dais is smoking. No wonder so many of us took up the habit as that was the norm back then.
When we were young we thought it was "cool" to smoke. After we were well hooked on nicotine they started telling us it was harmful to our health. Most of my family smoked and now most of us have quit. Too late for my sister and her husband though. He has emphysema and she has lung cancer. Last month she had the middle lobe of her right lung removed. At the end of this month she will have a growth removed from her left lung. So far there is no sign that is has spread and it looks like two separate cancers. We never thought it could happen to us. Neither one of them has smoked for many years.
I quit in 1986. Hopefully my smoking years will never catch up with me.
02-06-2013 11:30 PM
Today is my second day of not smoking after 15years ... I am stressed out man LOL...
My aunt Has lung cancer we found out 3 months ago which is why I am quiting not because it hit home...
Strange how things work sometimes like my 1 grandmother died at 83 of old age and she smoked like a chimney and drank like fish and swore like trucker...
My other Grandmother Died at 67 never smoked or drank and smacked me everytime I swore LOL ...
It funny though how this day and age Smoking is finally showing it's true colors but there are alot of things people never thing of like how the medication your taking for your pain Can kill you or cause liver damage or 1million other side effects...
Hey I just thought of something to fix it all LEGALIZE POT LOL.. The goverment still gets there bling bling and it would also replace many of the Harmful Medication used in this day and age ... BAM Solved
02-06-2013 11:36 PM
Just so nobody thinks my suggestion is crazy the only Scientifically proven thing that is harmful in anyway about pot is the smoking of a plant matter .. Basically saying Anything you smoke is not really healthy ...
You won't go crazy ..It doesn't kill brain cell ... Between the Pot and Hemp it truly is miracle plant but like always in many situation a lack of knowledge and an excessive amount of rumors makes many believe it is the devil ..
My Mother in law was on Oxy's for pain but got sick of feeling sick and being to high to function and finally got perscribed to pot and is doing amazing better then she has in the past 10 years ...
Anyways sorry for going of topic I guess I love to talk about pot LOL
02-06-2013 11:57 PM
02-07-2013 12:42 AM
VOTE JUSTIN yaaaaa ... My days are behind me but For those coming up hopefully it changes . It is sad to see lifes ruined because of a criminal record over one of the best plants ever known to man ...
Did you guys know that back in the day they gave a bunch of chimps pot to do research they were giving them so much smoke a session to test the whole killing brain cells thing then they ended up giving them way too much and do to lack of oxygen they all died ..
Lack of oxygen will do what ?? Kill brain cells .....
So after they killed them all they determined that pot had killed there brain cells when in fact sufficating them is what killed there brain cells now like 50 years later people still think it really kills brain cells ...
My typing skill could be a side effect of my hay days LMAO
02-07-2013 03:43 PM
Protect Great Lakes with tighter groundwater pumping limits
The Great Lakes contain 84% of all the freshwater in North America, but they are remarkably fragile. Less than 1% of the water is renewed by precipitation, surface-water runoff and groundwater recharge.
For the State of Michigan to fulfill its stewardship obligation to protect the Great Lakes, it must tighten its permissive rules on groundwater pumping.
Last month, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reported that the water level in Lakes Michigan and Huron was two inches below the record for the lowest monthly average since the Corps began keeping records in the 1860s. The level dropped 17 inches in the last year. Much of this drop is due to the persistent drought.
Another factor is natural climatic variability. Since 1999, both lakes have been below normal. But the persistence of lower-than-expected precipitation levels forces us to re-examine what is "normal." Climate change, with rising temperatures and an increasing number of severe weather events, adds a new variable.
An important study published in February 2012 in the Journal of Climate found that winter ice cover on the Great Lakes has dropped by 71% on average over the last 40 years. This has profound implications for the water level in the lakes. Warmer air temperatures cause the lakes to absorb more heat, which means less ice cover and an increase in wintertime evaporation.
It may seem counterintuitive to worry about evaporation during the winter, when air temperatures are so low, but when the air is cold and dry and the lake temperatures relatively warm, conditions are perfect for evaporation off the surface of the lakes, which reduces lake levels.
Ice cover retards evaporation loss. Reduced ice cover means warmer water temperatures, which promotes earlier and more severe algae blooms. This, in turn, decreases water quality. Less ice cover also increases shoreline erosion because the atmosphere is more turbulent and wind speed accelerates.
The new normal poses significant challenges for Michigan. Lake levels may never recover. A long-term decline in water levels threatens coastal habitats, especially wetlands. Many land owners have found that their docks no longer reach the edge of the lake. Lower water levels rekindle disputes over public access to shore lands and raise property issues as to who owns newly exposed Great Lakes bottomlands. For example, may property owners groom the beaches in front of their homes by removing emergent wetland vegetation?
Lower lake levels also have significant economic costs. In order to avoid running aground, cargo ships must carry lighter payloads, which dramatically increases the cost of shipping. Many harbors along the upper parts of the Lower Peninsula are too shallow for pleasure boats. Harbormasters need to secure funds to increase dredging, once the province of the Corps but now a state and local burden. Meanwhile, local marinas, grocery stores and restaurants are suffering from the decline in recreational boat traffic.
The Michigan Water Use Program and the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact are milestones in the effort to protect the water resources of the Great Lakes. Yet, in the last three years, Michigan has registered 1,167 new high-capacity groundwater wells, each capable of pumping more than 100,000 gallons per day.
The state can't control precipitation, but it can control diversions from streams and pumping from wells that reduce flow into the Great Lakes.
http://www.freep.com/article/20130207/OPINION05/302070122/1068/RSS06
02-07-2013 03:53 PM
The area from Grand Bend through London and St. Thomas to Port Stanley gets all of its water from the Great Lakes - more than 400 million liters a day. I wonder how many other cities around the Great Lakes also rely on the lakes for their water.
A lot of this water eventually finds its way back to the lakes, but not all of it.
02-07-2013 04:56 PM
How things have changed! I have been watching some old Dean Martin "roasts" on YouTube and almost everyone on the dais is smoking. No wonder so many of us took up the habit as that was the norm back then.
From the 30's to the late 70's or so many Tobacco Companies Advertising Campaigns Used Actors as Doctors or Actual Doctors endorsing their brands
Amazing how many of these appeared in print
My First Doctor in Peterborough collected and framed these ads from the 1930's and displayed them in his office
Found it a good way to start a dialouge with his patients who smoked
One just shakes their head at the benefits smoking brought to one who smoked according to these
weavers
02-07-2013 05:10 PM
The tobacco companies reaped the benefits of it and it made their owners and shareholders rich.......and the governments reaped the benefits of it to the tune of Billions. Even the people who didn't smoke.....those taxes went to benefits for them.
Now the government wants people to quit. Great idea!!..... but where's the 'real' help? There isn't any.....not 'really'. Some people will say ...."just quit, I did, my father did, my great uncle twice removed did"........but not everyone is the same individual nor has the same life. Tell all Canadians that they can no longer eat any meat of any type....they're now on vegetables and fruits only (probably much healthier anyhow). Then they get an idea of how it feels. People will be raising cows in the basement just to get a meat fix.
02-07-2013 05:15 PM
People will be raising cows in the basement just to get a meat fix.
Or chickens in their backyards if Orser has his way.