Town of Comox came together to care for grounded passengers
Posted April 11, 2012 12:19 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
COMOX (NEWS1130) – Security checks have been completed for Korean Air passengers waiting to take off in Comox after a bomb threat forced them to land there yesterday.
The mayor of Comox tells us the town came together to make sure all 134 people had what they needed. Paul Ives says they were fed at the mess hall and put up for the night in a couple of hotels.
The mess hall was standing by with cots and mattresses at the gym, just in case they couldn’t fit them all in, but fortunately, they were all taken care of.
Ives explains the airport is very equipped for this type of situation. “It has a very long runway… a 10,000 foot runway, which is basically second in size only to Vancouver’s runway. So, on the island, it is a bigger facility than even Victoria. We are on that route; as planes leave Vancouver, we see them flying overhead to Asia.”
He adds it was all-hands-on-deck to make sure everything was okay when the plane landed yesterday. “The base was excellent and RCMP and firefighters worked hand-in-hand.”
It had to be diverted after a bomb threat was called into a US call centre for the airline. Nothing was found.
