Nav Canada, the country’s civil aviation navigation and air traffic control service provider, disclosed on the 3rd that several major airports in Canada faced 'bomb threats' in the early hours of the day, causing many flights to be grounded.
In any case, police in all locations later confirmed that no suspicious items were found. By near noon that day, all airports had returned to normal operations.
Nav Canada stated via social media that airport facilities in Ottawa, Montreal, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Calgary, and Vancouver had received 'bomb threats', leading to temporary grounding of flights at those airports. All staff at the affected locations were safe.
Nav Canada later indicated that, after evacuations and assessments by authorities at several of its sites, service at each site gradually resumed. By around 11 a.m. Eastern Time, all operations at its sites had returned to normal.
The agency stated that, for security reasons, it could not disclose the specific nature of the threats, but it would continue to cooperate closely with follow-up investigations by the authorities.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in Winnipeg, Vancouver, and other locations confirmed to mainstream Canadian media that their local airports had received 'bomb threats' earlier that day. However, after thorough searches by local police, no suspicious items were found.
In one such case, the Winnipeg RCMP revealed to the media that a phone call claimed there was a bomb hidden in the airport control tower, but nothing suspicious was found after on-site searches by the police.