About a dozen flights were diverted and others delayed after police arrested a man on a runway at Vancouver International Airport for allegedly stealing a Cessna 172 on Tuesday. The unusual incident began at Victoria International Airport, about 50 miles across the Strait of Georgia on Vancouver Island about 1:10 p.m. PDT with the report of a 172 being stolen from the Victoria Flying Club. The aircraft was identified headed across the water toward the very busy airspace surrounding Vancouver. The plane entered a loose pattern around one of the four main runways and landed about 35 minutes after leaving Victoria. Police with guns drawn arrested the man beside the 172.
The incident triggered an emergency at Vancouver. “Shortly before 1:30 p.m., a security incident involving a small private aircraft in the airspace near YVR prompted a 39 minute ground stop for arrivals. Flights are now operating normally,” the airport said in an X post about 3 p.m. No further details have been released and the identity of the man flying the 172 is being withheld pending a court appearance. There were no injuries reported and the aircraft appeared undamaged.
Well, with inflation on the rise I’m glad the plane wasn’t damaged; on the other hand, stealing a plane is not good PR for anyone. Next will be canine security at flying clubs at larger centres. Disrupting traffic at a large airport for a couple of hours isn’t my chosen way to be remembered in the public’s eye. Not much thought went into this escapade.
Another Darwin Candidate.
Could have been a terrorist.
YYJ still needs to tighten security.
Several years ago a person got onto the ramp of VFC to photograph his son starting on a cross-country expedition.
Westjet 737 advised tower it was going around because there’s someone with a gun on the runway.
Fool father was out there with long camera lens or tripod or something.
Remember a time when an aspiring pilot could drive to an airport, park in the parking lot, look at the planes without a 10 ft tall chain link fence, guard dogs, and the potential for getting shot as a terrorist?
Pepperidge Farms remembers (sigh)
So do I. As a high school kid me and my high school friends would drive to the Manville airport (NJ), park and watch planes as we drank…well…liquids. You could walk near them. Man that inspired me more then any of the model planes I built as a younger self. Watching, from a parking lot right near the FBO a small plane landing at night was, as I said way back then “that’s poetry in motion”.
A stupid act by a stupid individual, but now in today’s hyper-sensitive world, let’s over react, because its not like stupid people have done stupid things with airplanes since…there were airplanes.
Could have been a terrorist? Of course. I could be a terrorist. You could be a terrorist. Let’s treat everyone as if they could be terrorists.
Amen, JHull. “Security” paranoia has become a self-perpetuating industry. My wife went out to the windsock to video my son and I taking off and (3 weeks later) returning from an epic trip we just did to Alaska. Four airport employees came after her in a van and a pickup and hassled her. She entered the airport gate legally using our code, and there were no signs or markings saying she couldn’t be there. But these bureau-brownshirts were determined to make it into an “incident” so they could write a report. I told them to back off and go find a bucket of paint and a sign. It’s sickening how modern society needs to herd and control everyone over silly nonsense. I’d rather risk a 172 being stolen once every 30 years than have razor wire and cameras around everything.
Let’s not go too overboard here. As an airport with air carrier activity, YYJ already has significantly more security and watchful eyes than most Canadian aerodromes.
If you are worried about a terrorist stealing a 172 from an airport like YYJ, how do you feel about the national security threat of the some 6000 aerodromes across Canada - most of them uncontrolled? The best way of eliminating a risk is to eliminate the activity - but I am not sure that most AvWeb readers have an appetite for this kind of risk management.
Wait what the press will spin out of this and see how the NIMBY’s react when they find out. Then lets redefine “OVERBOARD”…
I am worried, justifiably given the history of jihadist terrorists, operatives of Russia, and Sikhs in Canada and the US.
Read history - shamans of mosques in Canada were turning young men to jihadism, Sikhs from SW BC bombed Air India flights, persons connected to the government of India assassinated Sikhs in Surrey BC.
Spotting individuals in advance is very important. Challenging but they often give clues. False/paranoid tips have to be filtered.
Yes, junior jackboots are a problem but so are terrorists as I point to in another reply.
Did your wife’s access authorization include the area of the windsock?
I vote for officials who hire, coach, and fire police for sense.
Relevance? ‘Pepperidge Farms’ is a food brand.
Look at airplanes from a distance, ‘plane spotting’ is common activity that some airports provide a place for.
As Uniform Golf pointed out, the only way to eliminate risk is to eliminate the activity. Then we will have a real pilot shortage because no one wants to deal with all the “security” hassles. Then when the current supply of pilots run out everyone can all go back to walking or a sailing ship to get where we need to be. Fortunately if that happens I probably won’t be around to see that happening.
The Times Colonist newspaper of Victoria BC reports that an instructor at VFC is ‘doing OK’, no details, VFC cannot comment as is active investigation.
It also reports that ATC at YVR believe the pilot was ‘protesting’ something.
And that NORAD dispatched fighters (newspaper says F-15s but probably from Whidbey which does have many F-18s), and CF-18s which I believe would come from CFB Comox which is further away.
You truly must be a youngin’
First Here is an original
Then it morphs into this
Its part of a meme, a sardonic way to introduce a thought like, remember when people took time to look up things without just posting comments…Pepperidge Farms remembers…see?
Humor to diffuse … you fill in what you want…
JHull:
I grew up without TV, without fancy food.
Just like ATC.
:-o)
The Times Colonist newspaper of Victoria BC reports that the perp has a history of climate protests.
(I note those scum damage aircraft deliberately.
It’s publicity, which GoonPeace executives say repeatedly is what matters, not facts.)
Is calling it a hijacking, says perp was a commercial pilot in the past.
Hijacking a shock for Victoria Flying Club - Victoria Times Colonist
Between the Times Colonist and The Independent the name Shaheer Cassim is revealed.
He had worked for a small airline on Vancouver Island over a decade ago but left because he found it boring, say the owners who are surprised at his actions this week.
A person of that name recently said on social media that he heard a message from Allah, he is a Messiah who believes humans would go extinct because of rapid global warming.
He’s been charged with terrorism, as well as hijacking.