10:04 AM PT -- Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau just spoke on the incident, calling it a "slap in the face" to all Canadians who had followed the rules up until this point in fighting the pandemic.
A group of rowdy Canadians are gonna have to find another way home after partying their faces off aboard a flight from the Great White North to Mexico ... which got out of control.
Check out this video ... it's a bunch of what appear to be 20-somethings throwing down in the cabin of a Sunwing Airlines plane as they jet down to Cancun for New Year's Eve. This was shot a day before NYE, BTW, so they've been there almost a full week now.
As you can see, it's pure mayhem in the aisles ... with folks smoking vapes, drinking booze and hoisting each other up for a little crowd surfing in the tightly packed area. Of course, nobody seems to be wearing masks ... or abiding by any sort of protocol whatsoever.
Indeed, it looks like a college frat party -- and if you're wondering where the flight crew was and how they could let things get this out of hand ... word is, the attendants actually gave up trying to establish order with this raucous bunch, and hid away toward the front and/or back, letting the passengers have their way -- this per local reports, citing a union rep.
There's also this ... a lot of these airplane partiers are apparently somewhat famous, as some of them have been described as social media influencers or reality TV stars in their homeland -- although, no specific names have surfaced just yet.
The health and safety of on-board personnel as well as passengers during a flight is a top priority. Passengers on Sunwing's flight to Cancun will be held accountable for their actions. Our statement: https://t.co/vtvHiTUnnA
— Omar Alghabra (@OmarAlghabra) January 5, 2022
The bad behavior didn't go unnoticed in the end ... in fact, it's actually being thoroughly investigated by the Canadian federal government, with its own Minister of Transport explicitly calling for accountability against these folks -- calling their actions "unacceptable."
Sunwing itself has also launched an investigation ... and took further steps to punish 'em all, by canceling their flight back to Montreal which was scheduled for Wednesday.
In addition to being left stranded south of the border, the unruly crowd also faces potential hefty fines -- up to $5,000 for each violation -- and if they do this again on a returning flight home ... they could even get jail time, as Canada is super strict on COVID rules these days.
As you might imagine, cases are sky-high up there right now ... just like elsewhere across the world -- and the government has advised people to avoid international travel if they can.
Not saying this would solve the problem here, since the mob clearly overtook the situation. But ... maybe the Canadians can take some pointers from American flight attendants, who've been getting resourceful, of late, to restrain disorderly dissenters in the skies.
A little duct tape and some zip tie action goes a long way when you need it ... and so did air marshals once upon a time. The heck ever happened to those guys anyway??? 😅