‘Everybody in the airport just panicked’: Manitobans, Ontarians recount chaos in Puerto Vallarta

A Winnipeg couple is stranded at Puerto Vallarta’s international airport after violence forced flight cancellations and sent travellers scrambling for cover.

Tony Mariani and his wife Cathy were set to fly home Sunday after a three‑week stay when they saw smoke near the airport. Inside, their WestJet flight was cancelled, and moments later Mariani says gunfire erupted outside.

“People were scurrying, flying on the ground, trying to find cover,” he said.

Airport staff moved hundreds of people behind check‑in counters and later to the second floor. Mariani said Mexican federal officers were stationed outside and the airport was shut down.

“There were machine guns and everything out front.”

A second flight he and his wife were rebooked on was also cancelled.

Mariani registered with the Canadian embassy and phoned Ottawa’s emergency line but says the only guidance he received was to “shelter in place.”

Food service is limited, and travellers must buy their own meals, though bathrooms remain available, Mariani said.

Locals told him the violence is retaliation after the Mexican army killed a high‑ranking cartel figure, he added. Mariani described the situation as “real” and frightening.

“When you see kids crying, elderly people crying — it’s real,” he said.

Mariani said all they want now is to get home safely.

‘It was a ghost town’

Micayla Harland, who is from Kenora, said she first started to see what was happening as her Uber took her to the airport.

“He started telling me about what was happening with the cartels,” she said. “One of the strategies that they use is just hijack vehicles and buses and light them on fire to attempt blockades and to just cause mayhem.”

She said she saw exactly that on her drive, a vehicle that had just been set on fire.

“I took a video of it too, because I was like, ‘Wow, this is crazy.’ Never seen anything like that before.”

Harland had been visiting her mom for a week in San Pancho, where she recently bought a house.

Once she got to the airport, Harland said she waited in line for around an hour before being told flights were grounded.

As she was waiting to figure out what was going to happen next, she said mass panic started to unfold.

“One person had gone outside to have a cigarette and he saw military police doing hand signals to each other and running. Then shortly after that, there was gunfire that was heard and everybody in the airport just panicked.”

She said people were jumping behind counters and taking cover wherever possible.

“I remember going into the bathroom like 30 minutes later and there’s footprints on the toilet seats where people had been hiding in stalls.”

Once she learned there wouldn’t be a flight out for her to catch, Harland said a group of people from the airport walked to the Marine District that was 30 minutes away.

A friend of hers has a condo in the area and offered her a place to stay until she knew when she could leave.

“It was a ghost town. We saw maybe three cars the whole time we were out. This is normally a very bustling neighbourhood.”

Harland said she feels safe now but added this whole experience has felt surreal.

“The condo I’m at right now overlooks one of the big resorts…you can hear the clinking of the forks from our balcony and people are just in their pool over there. But then you look out in the other area and there’s still smoke in the air and everything’s, again, like a ghost town.”

Harland is still trying to figure out when she will be able to make it home, saying the latest she has heard is March 1, but it depends on if WestJet can get planes into the area.

“They’re trying apparently to get rescue flights in to get more people home faster. But you’re stuck in limbo.”

The federal government issued a shelter-in-place order for Canadians in Puerto Vallarta due to the violence in the region.

Global Affairs Canada advised Canadians in Jalisco State to keep a “low profile” and follow local authorities’ advice.