An airline which ejected at least 25 passengers from a Heathrow-bound plane without telling them why has admitted that some were ‘mistakenly removed’.
Air Canada has confirmed that some passengers had done nothing wrong before its staff accompanied by armed police ordered them off the plane.
Officials have been contacting the innocent passengers to apologise for the blunder and are believed to be discussing possible compensation with them.
But the airline is continuing to claim that others were thrown off the flight for ‘disruptive behaviour’ which included a failure to wear masks under anti-Covid rules.
It refused to confirm how many were wrongly ordered off as the plane sat on the tarmac at Montreal airport late on Monday night before leaving for Heathrow.
MailOnline revealed on Wednesday how passengers sitting quietly in their seats were told they had to leave without being given any explanation.
Those affected included support staff from Formula One teams who were in Montreal for the Grand Prix as well as a retired British couple who had been on holiday.
Air Canada had initially claimed that ‘a group of 25 customers’ were removed ‘due to disruptive behaviour’ and that it was investigating allegations that other ‘unrelated individuals’ were also deplaned during the process.
But in a statement released to MailOnline, the airline confirmed that the issue centred around the wearing of masks, and that some of the passenger should not have been thrown off.
The statement said: ‘Our general policy is to not discuss incidents of disruptive behavior onboard our aircraft, but we can confirm the deplaning of passengers from flight AC866 on June 20 was related to non-compliance with Canadian government mask regulations, Canadian Aviation Regulations, as well as directives of our crew.
‘The actions taken were for the safety and benefit of the other 266 passengers on the flight.
‘We regret that some customers who were not involved were unfortunately deplaned. We have since reached out those we have identified as mistakenly removed to apologize and address their concerns.’
