Jays forced out of unfriendly skies

Members of the Toronto Blue Jays’ winter tour—including Hall of Famer Roberto Alomar, starter Brett Cecil and left-fielder Eric Thames—received a scare Friday morning when mechanical issues forced their St. John’s bound commercial Air Canada flight to make an abrupt return to Halifax.

While flight AC672 didn’t make an emergency landing, it was forced to reduce its altitude quickly because of a lack of air pressure in the cabin, according to team spokesman Mal Romanin, who was on board.

The plane’s oxygen masks did not deploy.

Air Canada spokeswoman Angela Mah said via e-mail that the flight turned back because of a "pressurization indication" and "as per our standard operating procedures, the pilots descended quickly to 10,000 feet, and then landed safely and routinely in Halifax."

The Blue Jays group of 18 arrived around 9:10 p.m. local time and headed straight to their autograph session with fans at the Avalon Mall.

An earlier engagement at the Ches Family Y was cancelled, although the club still gave children in attendance a glove, ball and Blue Jays toque, and made an equipment donation to the Y's baseball program.

Shi Davidi is the MLB Insider for sportsnet.ca. Come back to read his insight and opinion regularly.