Originally Posted by
RobOnLI
Excellent question.
My hunch is that they put this on the books as a diversion for a reason. I suspect that if this was handled as a diversion where only people got OFF the plane and no one got ON, ANC and the FAA aren't likely to make a big stink of it. But who knows?! Also, most people taking this flight more than likly did not bring their passports as they weren't expecting an unexpected stopover in Canada.
I'm not too sure about this lack of ICE clearance even. AC tried a one-directional stop on the YVR-SYD route at HNL (it was n/s the other way) and if the doors were opened, clearance at HNL was required even though the a/c was going to SYD or YVR (fishing expedition for ICE?) Too much of hassle so the flight was dropped. There was/is also an AS U.S. west coast-YVR-ANC flight. Seems AS neglected to tell pax that they'd need to clear U.S. immigration at SEA or ANC (or something like that) even if they got on the place at one of the other places and did not get off the plane at YVR.
It'd be nice to get a 1st hand report.