BlackBerry Sacks Two 'Drunk' Executives Who Caused Plane to Divert

BlackBerry maker Research in Motion announced on Monday that it has fired two executives after their behaviour - allegedly fuelled by alcohol - forced a flight to divert.

The executives were on a flight to China but the plane was forced to return to Canada, where the two were removed and arrested by airport security, according to the Guardian.

"RIM does not condone behaviour that conflicts with applicable laws and employees are expected to act, at all times, with integrity and respect," the company said in a statement.

The two executives, named as George Campbell, 45 and Paul A. Wilson, 38, are believed to have drunk heavily on a flight from Toronto to Beijing before becoming hostile and were ultimately restrained with plastic handcuffs by crew members and other passengers.

As punishment the men have been given suspended sentences, placed on probation and each was ordered to pay the airline £22,990, after the Air Canada flight was forced to turn around near the North Pole and land in Vancouver.

Also on Monday, the Jakarta Post reported that the head of RIM's division in Indonesia is under investigation after a promotion which saw BlackBerrys sold for half price resulted in a near-riot, resulting in several shoppers being taken to hospital.

The promotion offered half price phones to the first 1000 customers and RIM states that is cooperating with the authorities and is conducting an internal investigation.

It has been a torrid year for RIM and the BlackBerry brand; there was a three-day data outage that affected tens of millions of people in October, the PlayBook tablet has failed to sell despite heavy discounts and personal and business customers alike are moving away from the brand, resulting in a 70 per cent drop in the firm's share price.