Two Canadian women are facing charges after authorities said they drank their duty-free alcohol in a plane's toilet, triggered the fire alarm with a cigarette and got into a fight with each other, forcing the Sunwing flight bound for Cuba to return to Toronto under a military escort.

Peel Region police said Lilia Ratmanski, 25, and Milana Muzikante, 26, have been charged with smoking on board an aircraft and endangering its safety.

The airline said the flight had left Toronto when it was disrupted by "two unruly female passengers". Sunwing vice-president Janine Chapman said the passengers had consumed a "significant quantity of their duty-free alcohol purchase in the lavatory" and that they made a "threat against the aircraft".

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