OTTAWA: An investigation into the origins of a suspicious package found on an Air India flight this week has stumped Canadian police, now forced to enlist help from British and Indian authorities, officials said on Thursday.
Air India Flight 188 was ordered back to the Toronto airport late on Monday after a passenger found the package in the aircraft's bathroom about an hour after takeoff, police said.
"We're still trying to determine how the package got onboard with all the security measures in place," Constable Jennifer Bryer said. "And, we're contacting other agencies in Britain and India to assist in the investigation."
The jet with 149 passengers and 11 crew members onboard was bound for New Delhi, India with a planned stopover in Birmingham, England.
Constable Pete Brandwood of the Peel Regional Police said the aircraft was directed to a remote area of the tarmac at the Toronto airport where passengers disembarked and the package was destroyed by the police bomb squad.
"There's no indication that there was anything unsafe surrounding the package," he told reporters on Tuesday.
"It's the circumstances of this package being in the bathroom of the airplane that caused the crew and the captain to be concerned about possible passenger safety."
Nobody has come forward to claim the package, Bryer said. "It was not an explosive device, but it contained some tools that were packaged in a unique manner," she said, offering no details because of the "sensitivity of the investigation."
