National junior hockey teams thrown from a plane in a row over masks

Passengers were outraged that the Russians did not wear masks before being forced off a plane, said a rival coach whose team was also expelled, following the cancellation of the World Junior Ice Hockey Championships.

On New Year’s Eve, Russian players and staff were not allowed to board Air Canada’s flight AC848 from Calgary to Frankfurt because outraged Canadian passengers complained about them not wearing masks.

Otakar Cerny, the manager of the Czech team, who was also due to board the flight following the cancellation of the Junior World Championships due to Covid, said alcohol “probably played a role“.

Russian players were seated at the bar, members of their group smoked on their way to the flight, and organisers asked the two teams to leave the plane due to onboard offences, Cerny said.

“Some of the passengers then complained about the behaviour of the Russians, so the crew evacuated the whole plane.”

Wearing a mask in public has been a frequent subject of controversy since the start of the pandemic. Canada has some of the strictest rules in the world regarding public health guidelines related to Covid.

Marie Lehmann, a reporter for the Swedish channel SVT, said on Twitter that “drunkenness, smoking and refusal to wear a face mask” were among the reasons for the decision by airline officials.

Cerny called the alleged fiasco “another complication” of the botched trip, but said the situation had been resolved and his team would only have to stay in Canada for an additional 24 hours.

Russian team head coach Sergei Zubov confirmed to Izvestia that the teams were pulled from the flight due to a “mask mandate violation” as a result of “very strict rules“.