The U20 ice hockey world championship held in Canada was canceled prematurely due to rising corona numbers. Some players from the Czech and Russian national teams have also been thrown outright by Air Canada for refusing to wear masks.

On December 31, 2021, the U20 national teams of the two states were booked on the same Air Canada flight from Calgary to Frankfurt am Main. Even before the AC848 took off, the athletes did not show their best side. 

Some players of the Russian team are said to have strictly refused to wear masks on board and at least tried to smoke cigarettes on top of that. The incident happened before departure. The Air Canada crew acted strictly according to regulations and threw the affected athletes out of the Boeing 787. Sergei Zubov, coach of the Russian team, admitted the matter to the newspaper Izvestia: “The teams from the Czech Republic and Russia were taken off the flight for violating the mask regime. Very strict rules ”.

The Calgary police confirmed that the U20 national ice hockey teams of Russia and the Czech Republic had to leave Air Canada flight AC848 because several players allegedly failed to comply with the airline's mask and behavioral rules. Both teams are said to have been denied access again. The executive emphasized that not all athletes participated in the disruptive activities.

The Czech team boss, Otakar Černý, sees the matter completely differently and stands protectively in front of the team he has trained. They behaved correctly and did not take part in the activities of the Russian players. You would only have been kicked out because the clothes and luggage looked similar. “And that's practically the only reason why they threw us in the same pocket as the Russians and told us that the entire Czech and Russian crew could no longer board the plane,” said the team boss of the Czech Republic. “Representatives from Air Canada apologized to us and one day later arranged a hotel and a flight to Frankfurt at the same time at their expense. They also assured us that we would not fly the same flight as the Russian hockey players ”.

Regardless of how the incident happened on board the C-FKSV, the matter caused a delay of over two hours. It can also be concluded from this that the athletes did not leave the Dreamliner quickly.