Members of the Russian youth ice hockey team were removed from the flight leaving the Canadian city of Calgary on Friday evening due to inappropriate behavior and violation of the mask regime.

Reported by CTV News.

According to the source, some players and other representatives of the national teams of Russia and the Czech Republic refused to put on masks, were drunk, and also smoked. For this, they were taken off the flight along with their luggage after boarding.. At the same time, the national teams of Finland and Sweden took off on the same plane..

Among the eyewitnesses to the incident on board is Thompson Rivers University professor Kathleen Sherf. According to her, the plane stood on the runway for almost two hours after it was supposed to fly to Frankfurt.. Two Russian coaches traveled next to her in business class.

“I immediately noticed that it was hard for the flight attendants, because they had to be told to sit down, not to vape, to stop listening to their very loud hard rock on the iPhone,” Sherf said..

Earlier, the 2022 World Youth Championship was canceled due to coronavirus in three teams - the United States, the Czech Republic and Russia.

The Russian national team lost to Sweden (3: 6), beat Switzerland (4: 2). The third game in the group against Slovakia was canceled due to a positive test for coronavirus in the Russian squad, having been awarded them defeat. After that, the IIHF decided to stop the tournament on the night of December 30.