[projekktor id=’19804′]

It’s not how 30 WestJet passengers planned on spending Canada Day. Their flight from Vancouver to Toronto was diverted to Calgary after a bomb threat. It’s the fourth of its kind in the last five days.

While they all turned out to be hoaxes, the latest threat could make some travelers reconsider air travel. Transport Canada say it is monitoring the incidents and it says airlines and airports have protocols in place when dealing with such threats.

The investigation into all four threats has been handed over to the RCMP.

3 flights, 2 of which were destined for Toronto, were forced to make an emergency landing after a bomb scare. After a thorough search, police came up empty handed.

“The timing of so many in such a short time span does seem unusual. It is not unusual to have safety issues come up now and then.” David Pridham has 5 years of experience as a private pilot. He says any threat to passengers or crew members is take seriously. “Secure the aircraft on the ground. They would notify air traffic control to get priority handling and so that air traffic control can get security forces waiting once they land. Because until you prove otherwise, you have to assume it’s real.”

In a statement issued by WestJet following the latest scare, they say “we will continue to work closely with law enforcement to find those responsible. Safety remains our top priority and we will continue to be vigilant to keep our guests and our crews safe.”

While WestJet’s priority is still the safety of its passengers, the number of threats in such a short period of time could have an affect on a travelers psyche.

Greg Dubord is a certified psychiatrist and works with many patients that have a fear of flying. “One of the fundamental issues we have to face as humans is, can we tolerate uncertainty? And people vary in that extent.”
He says the recent string of threats won’t cause travelers to cancel their flights. “Bottom line, you never know when something can happen. You just can’t, and we have to live out lives anyways. We have to tolerate some degree of uncertainty”

David Pridham says air travel is still the safest way to get from point A to point B. “What they have to remember is aviation is still the safest way to travel. The number of departures and arrivals compared to the number of safety accidents that come up…we hear about it because it is noteworthy, but its still such a safe way to travel.”