Panama bound bomb threat man said mentally unstable
THE MAN who made the bomb threat on Sunwing Flight 772 from Toronto to Rio Hato, Panama, on Friday, July 25 has a history of mental instability, according to his parents.
The bomb threat came 45 minutes into the flight bound for Panama out of Pearson airport on Friday and the plane turned back with US fighter plane escorts.
 Flight 772 should have been an uneventful six hour flight, but became a nightmare for passengers who were put on to a second plane, which had to be diverted to Montego Bay in Jamaica when a passenger was taken ill. It finally arrived in Panama some 14hours after passengers first boarded the vacation bound plane.
A man identified as Ali Shahi, one of 183 passengers on the Sunwing plane, was agitated, angry over an expensive purchase of cigarettes from the duty-free shop reports the Toronto Star.
He began ripping apart magazines and the safety card from the pouch in front of his seat, grabbing at the window shade to pull it down, said Sunwing officials.
The Mississauga resident is then alleged to have uttered “a direct threat against the aircraft,” serious enough that the flight attendant who overheard it alerted the captain and the plane turned around.
After the Boeing 737 landed at Pearson, at least six tactical officers stormed the jet, repeatedly yelling at passengers “heads down, hands up.” As they ran past, one officer stayed up front pointing his gun.
Shahi was removed from the plane.
“Shahi is alleged to have “made numerous threats relating to bombs and explosives,” while speaking to the flight attendant directly, as well as commenting out loud, said a Sunwing official.
Late Friday, his father described his son as a troubled, mentally ill man.
“I blame it on the society here, the health system and the police system. We called police on him more than 23 times in two-three years,” said Sadegh Shahi, who said the family tried but could not force their son into a rehab program.
The father, speaking in the living room of the family’s spacious Mississauga home, said his son was isolated and that he suffered from depression but had stopped taking his medication. The elder Shahi said the family called police numerous times and had struggled physically with their son to try and push him out of the house.
They say their son was teased for being chubby as a child and was hospitalized for an eating disorder in high school, at one time losing 100 lbs. in three months.
As an adult, Ali had a big problem with gambling.
Elham Shahi, Ali’s mother, was shocked when she heard news reports that said her son was arrested.
“My son, has a mental problem,” said Shahi. “He is scared even from the mosquito. If he says ‘bomb’ or something, it’s just a word . . . because he has a mental problem. That’s why he says this. He’s very safe. He’s a good boy.”
According to his parents, Ali was travelling to Panama with his girlfriend of seven or eight years and the two had a child. Photos on Facebook show Ali holding a blond boy in his arms.
Elham Shahi said she talked to her son on his cellphone after the incident and was told by Ali, who spoke calmly, that he didn’t know why the flight had returned to Pearson. Ali’s girlfriend called her later to say that her boyfriend had blown up when he discovered in the in-flight magazine that cigarettes were cheaper to buy on the plane than they were at the duty-free store.
Peel Regional Police wouldn’t confirm if they had ever had contact with the family. Media spokesperson Const. Thomas Ruttan told the Star “it really has nothing to do with what took place Friday.”
Keifer Sutch, 23, lived on Shahi’s residence floor during their first year at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay in 2010. He told the Star he was not surprised to hear about Friday’s incident.
“He was a little strange,” said Sutch. “I remember he got in a lot of s--t with police and stuff. He was always making threats and everything. He was just a little different.”
Sutch remembers several incidents where Shahi threatened to kill people living on their residence floor.
“(Shahi) would make threats to people he was mad at,” said Sutch. “He was always crazy, but he was always nice to me because I was nice to him. I never got in his way, though.”
Shahi’s gambling problem sometimes interfered with his life, adds Sutch.
“He had a gambling addiction that’s for sure, so he was always stressed out about that and his girlfriend back home,” said Sutch. “But I remember one time he won a lot of money and bought us all beers, which was nice.”
The men remain Facebook friends, but Shahi didn’t come back to university last year and the two don’t keep in touch.
“He needs help, there’s something wrong,” said Sutch. “Mentally, psychologically . . . just from the way that he reacts to stuff. I don’t know. I didn’t delve too much into his personal life because I didn’t want to.”
Friday’s drama began around 7:45 a.m.
The threats by Shahi triggered a protocol that involved the Federal Aviation Authorities because the flight was in U.S. airspace over West Virginia.
Two F-16 fighter jets on a training mission from Toledo, Ohio, were called in to accompany the plane back to Toronto.
After Ahahi was removed from the plane, the remaining passengers were taken by bus to the terminal at Pearson, where they were put on a later flight to Panama City. That flight was expected to land late Friday night but was diverted to Sangster airport in Montego Bay, Jamaica after a passenger fainted.
That passenger was taken to a private hospital in Jamaica and the plane took off for Panama, for the third time, at 9:05 p.m.