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.