By The Canadian Press
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MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica - Six crew members on board a Canadian airliner were being held hostage at gunpoint early Monday after a lone gunman with "mental issues" forced his way through security and stormed the jet as it was preparing to depart Jamaica for Halifax.
All the passengers who were to be on board Canjet Airlines flight 918, scheduled to leave Montego Bay at 11 p.m. Sunday night local time, were safely off the plane, said Sangster International Airport spokeswoman Elizabeth Scotton.
"There are no passengers involved at this time, and there's no passengers on board the aircraft," Scotton said in a telephone interview with The Canadian Press. In all, 182 people had been scheduled to be aboard, the airline said.
No injuries have been reported.
Jamaican police spokesman Karl Angell said both police and army personnel were at the airport monitoring the situation. He declined to provide details on the progress of negotiations with the gunman, but confirmed that two of the Boeing 737's eight crew members had been released while the rest remained on board.
"The passengers have all been debriefed by the Jamaican police and have been placed in local hotels," police said in a statement.
There were conflicting reports about how many of the passengers were on the plane at the time of the incident; Scotton said most had not yet boarded the flight, although police said dozens of passengers were briefly held hostage before being released.
Alphonse Gosselin, whose son Christian was on board the plane with girlfriend Nancy as part of a group of people from New Brunswick's Acadian Peninsula headed to Cuba for a wedding, spoke with his son shortly after the pair were released.
"He was kind of shaken up, but basically he said everybody in the gang was OK," Gosselin told media from his home in Tracadie-Shiela, N.B.
Gosselin said a shot was fired outside the plane, and that the gunman demanded money from the passengers. "He told his girlfriend to immediately hide their passports in her back pockets, and their credit cards, which she did."
The flight was the girl's first, he added. "She was quite nervous, so I don't know if she'll ever fly again."
At a news conference in Halifax, Kent Woodside, vice president and general manager of CanJet, acknowledged reports of a shot having been fired outside the aircraft, but said there were no injuries.
Police said negotiations were ongoing with the gunman, who apparently managed to force his way through security and board the plane about 40 minutes before it was scheduled to take off.
Daryl Vaz, Jamaica's information minister, told CNN the gunman was believed to be a young Jamaican man in his 20s with "mental issues." He said the man was demanding to be taken to Cuba.
Vaz said the man's father had also been brought in to assist with negotiations.
In an interview, Vaz said he was surprised about the fact that someone with a gun was able to breach security.
"That is something our investigation has already started with the police and the operators of the airport and of course, the government airport authority," he said. "That is something that is ongoing and in the early stages."
Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding was also in Montego Bay and involved in the negotiations. Police said Golding also met with passengers and "assured them that everything possible was being done to enable them to return home as early as possible."
Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who happened to be in Jamaica for a one-day visit, was awakened early Monday with news of the incident, said an official in his office.
The official said the PMO was monitoring developments and was "deeply concerned."
"A member of the RCMP as well as the management and consular services officer at the Canadian High Commission in Jamaica are en route to Montego Bay to provide assistance," the official said.
The Canadian Press Photo: Canjet Airlines flight 918 sits on the tarmac near the Jamaican resort of Montego Bay....
