MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica - A short, boring pitstop on the tarmac was all it was supposed to be for the passengers of CanJet flight 918 -- drop off some folks and then take off for the resorts of Cuba.

At least two wedding parties on the plane were headed for the neighbouring island -- bride-to-be Susan Euloth of Halifax kept her wedding dress within comforting reach in the cabin. Suzanne Ferguson had 19 wedding-goers in tow from New Brunswick.

At 10:22pm Sunday, a tall young Jamaican dressed in what looked like an airport uniform pushed his way on board through the open front door. He had already bolted past the airport security checkpoint despite the gun tucked in his pants.

The terrifying ordeal that ensued made more than a few on the plane believe they were the next casualties of a Sept.11-style terrorist attack.

"He just started screaming, "This is a hijacking, this is a real hijacking! I'm f--g serious!" said Euloth's sister Shari.

The man began pacing up and down the cabin, loading his gun with bullets.

He barked orders at the passengers, telling them he wanted to get out of Jamaica.

"He was talking all the time: "I mean business, this is a hijacking, sit down, nobody move!"' said Ferguson.

"We were praying and crying a little bit, but everybody was quiet."

Susan Euloth and 17 members of her wedding party who are all hearing impaired became desperately confused.

Shari tried to help her sister.

"We were trying to sign to them but every time there was movement he would be like,"What are you looking at?" You didn't want to bring attention to yourself," said Euloth.

All the while, CanJet's team of flight attendants were working to calm down the gunman and keep him away from the passengers.

They moved the first five rows of vacationers into the bathrooms for safety.

But the gunman was becoming more agitated.

He pulled out his gun, pointed it at one flight attendant's neck. When a co-pilot emerged to try and talk him down, the man fired the gun past him -- a reverberating sound that Susan Euloth and her hearing impaired friends could feel in their core.

"I thought he wanted to crash the plane, like in New York, that's what we were all thinking. He wasn't going to shoot us all with that small gun," said Ferguson.

He didn't stop there, further terrorizing the passengers by abusing the crew.

"He got out the fire extinguisher and he sprayed one of the stewardesses up at the front of the plane in front of everybody. I thought then, `He's going to blow us up,"' said Haligonian Jill Eaton.

CanJet hostesses kept their cool, trying to convince the man to let the passengers go in exchange for money and valuables.

And then a breakthrough -- the would-be hijacker agreed.

"When we had to go out, she was screaming, leave everything in the plane, leave everything in the plane -- just get out and leave your passports, leave your bags, just get out! You have a chance to get out, just take it!" Ferguson said of one of the flight attendants.

"She was at the door with the bag of money shaking. She was courageous, she had to be. She was shouting louder and louder."

Euloth left her precious wedding dress behind as she made the terrified run for the door. The ordeal for the passengers had lasted roughly 45 minutes.

About 159 passengers made it out on to the tarmac and into the airport where they stayed for another three hours. Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding arrived at 2:00am, met some of the anxious travellers and promised them safe shelter and a way home.

They dispersed to local hotels where they made do with the clothes on their backs, having left everything including passports on the plane. The Sandals vacation company offered every passenger and crew member a free vacation at any of their resorts in Jamaica.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper had been woken up from the dead of sleep in a hotel in the capital Kingston. He happened to be in the country for an official visit that had just taken a drastic detour.

Inside the plane six crew were still holed up inside with their aggressor, who was not backing down despite the arrival of friends and relatives who pleaded with him through the police to put down his gun.

He was described by some who knew him as a man from a well-known local family who had gone to good schools, but had recently become depressed and had been acting strangely.

Jamaica's anti-terrorism tactical unit finally decided it was time to act, and stormed the airplane.

They succeeded in disarming the man, and the remaining crew were released uninjured at around 8:30am Monday.

Passengers said they prayed for the crew as they endured the eight-hour ordeal trapped inside the cabin with the gunman.

"They were fearless," Shari Euloth said of flight attendants. "They were fearless as far as I'm concerned."

Police arrested 20-year-old Stephen Fray in connection with the attempted hijacking, but as of Monday afternoon had not laid charges.

Golding offered a humble apology to the passengers and vowed to get to the bottom of what happened.

"There was quite clearly a breach of security at the airport," Golding said. "I've asked for an investigation to be done immediately and a report to be made."

Harper took a helicopter to Montego Bay as soon as the crisis was over, and took time to meet with both the CanJet crew and several dozen passengers.

He saluted the efforts of both the CanJet crew and the Jamaican authorities, calling it a "joyful" day.

From the sunny, palm-fringed courtyard of the nearby Holiday Inn, both Suzanne Ferguson and Susan Euloth were vowing not to let a hijacking stand in the way of nuptials -- the show would go on Thursday and Friday respectively.


A CanJet info-line for people with relatives who were on the plane can be reached at 1-888-777-6429.