“Unruly” Sunwing passengers appear in court

(Update)

The story of a couple of would be travellers spending the day in court instead of Cuba. Their alleged antics on board a charter flight this time Wednesday landed them in a lot of trouble and in the media spotlight.

Both women appeared in court this afternoon, sis-by-side, looking very sombre but they both kept their heads up and constantly looking around the courtroom.  One of the women has been identified as 25-year old Lilia Ratmanski of Whitby and the other is 26-year old Milana Muzikante of Vaughan.

According to her Facebook profile, Ratmanski lives in the GTA but is from Kyiv, Ukraine. Her mother was at the Brampton courthouse where the bail hearing was held, and said Ratmanksi is a nursing student at York University.

Each of the women face charges of smoking on a plane, uttering threats, two counts of mischief and endangering the safety of an aircraft. This after the flight they were on from Toronto to Cuba had to return to Pearson Airport last night.

Sunwing Airlines says that two unruly female passengers drank a significant amount of their duty-free alcohol, then proceeded to light a cigarette in the airplane’s washroom which set off the fire alarm. They also got into a physical altercation with one another and allegedly made a threat against the aircraft. The pilot made the decision to turn around over South Carolina and the flight was then escorted back to Pearson by two CF-18 fighter jets.

This was the first court appearance for both women this afternoon for a bail hearing. Lilia Ratmanski’s mother was here for part of the day and she had this to say: “I shock. She no drink. Never! I don’t understand what happened. Nursing, she is very good student. Everything.”

There is a publication ban in place so the specifics of what exactly happened on the flight cannot be reported. But we can tell you that the Crown recommended releasing both women on $2,500 bail respectively. Conditions include no communication between one another, no possession, consumption or purchasing of alcohol, no firearms, and they cannot be present on an aircraft or at an airport.

Lilia had a surety so she left court today but had no comment. She is scheduled to be back in court on September 29th.

As for Milana, she did not have a surety, although she is technically out on bail, she will remain in custody tonight at the Vanier Centre for Women until tomorrow when she is expected back in court.