Maskless Canadian Influencers Party, Vape, Drink On Plane; Face $3,900 Fine Per Violation

Authorities have been ordered to probe an end-of-the-year chartered flight from Canada to Mexico after images showing passengers drinking, vaping and partying without masks surfaced on social media.

Footage showed people onboard the Dec. 30 Sunwing Airlines flight from Montreal to Cancun dancing in the plane's aisle and passing around a bottle of Grey Goose vodka, according to Insider. In another clip, a woman can be seen blowing smoke from her electronic cigarette into the camera.

The plane's flight attendants avoided the cabin for most of the flight due to the "unruly" and "maskless" passengers, wrote journalist Francis Pilon of Journal de Montreal, who obtained the videos from the Instagram account of Nathaniel Oliva-Naud. The account has since been taken down.

Some of the flight's passengers were cast members of Quebec reality shows, Vancouver Sun reported.

Others, meanwhile, were social media influencers who now "risk hefty fines and being banned from airlines after breaking aviation rules," according to Pilon.

A group called 111 Private Club reportedly took credit for the flight on Instagram and described it as the "best event of the year."

The group later posted a screenshot of a newspaper article about the flight with the caption: "We made the news."

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he felt "extremely frustrated" after seeing the videos, a report by the Associated Press said.

"It’s a slap in the face to see people putting themselves, their fellow citizens and airline workers at risk by being completely irresponsible," Trudeau was quoted as saying.

Federal Transport Minister Omar Alghabra has since asked Transport Canada, the nation's airline regulator, to investigate the "unacceptable" behavior during the flight, as per the Vancouver Sun.

Alghabra also issued a joint statement with Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos and Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino that said their respective departments have been directed to investigate the incident.

Transport Canada has contacted Sunwing Airlines and said that passengers who violated the department's regulations could face fines of up to CAD$5,000 ($3,905) per offense.

Sunwing Airlines, for its part, has issued a statement addressing the incident.

"[T]he behavior of a group of passengers was unruly and contravened several Canadian Aviation Regulations as well as public health regulations, prompting an investigation by Sunwing Airlines' security department and an initial notification from Sunwing Airlines to Transport Canada," the company said.

Canada has reported a total of 2,394,518 COVID-19 cases and 30,581 virus-related deaths since the start of the pandemic, data provided by Johns Hopkins University showed.