{"id":68956,"date":"2025-07-17T04:22:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T04:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/68956\/"},"modified":"2025-07-17T04:22:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T04:22:11","slug":"former-commercial-pilot-charged-with-hijacking-and-terrorism-over-vancouver-flight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/68956\/","title":{"rendered":"Former commercial pilot charged with hijacking and terrorism over Vancouver flight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Landings at Vancouver International Airport were stopped for more than half an hour on Tuesday afternoon.DARRYL DYCK\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

A man charged with hijacking a light plane at Victoria International Airport and flying it to Vancouver had an \u201cideological motive to disrupt airspace\u201d and seized control of the aircraft<\/a> after threatening a flight instructor, RCMP said Wednesday.<\/p>\n

A spokeswoman for the Public Prosecution Service of Canada said a charge of hijacking had been filed in Richmond, B.C., constituting a \u201cterrorist activity\u201d and a \u201cterrorist offence\u201d under two sections of the Criminal Code.<\/p>\n

RCMP said Shaheer Cassim, 39, is set to appear in court next Tuesday.<\/p>\n

A man with the same name is a former commercial airline pilot based in Victoria who has previously been involved in climate activism, and social media photographs of that man resemble the person arrested on the runway at YVR.<\/p>\n

Landings at YVR had been halted for more than half an hour on Tuesday afternoon as the Cessna 172 circled at a low altitude in the airspace above the airport.<\/p>\n

In 2012, Cassim held a news conference in Victoria at the start of a cross-country bicycle trek to raise awareness of global warming. <\/p>\n

Cassim said at the time that he was a commercial pilot. He used to work for KD Air, a now-defunct airline that was based in Qualicum Beach on Vancouver Island. <\/p>\n

The former owners, Lars and Diana Banke, sold the airline years ago. They said in an interview that Cassim was one of the smartest and best pilots they ever had, but that he believed the world was ending. <\/p>\n

Lars Banke estimated Cassim flew for KD Air for \u201cjust over a year.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a good pilot,\u201d Banke said, adding that he was only vaguely aware of the hijacking incident, having seen something on YouTube. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe was really, really, smart,\u201d he said. \u201cHis intelligence was a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Banke said Cassim got bored and left his pilot job to go to medical school. <\/p>\n

The couple said they\u2019d heard from Cassim about two years ago, getting a phone call about a potential visit, but nothing came of it and they hadn\u2019t heard from him since. <\/p>\n

The Cessna at the centre of Tuesday\u2019s scare had taken off just before 1 p.m. from Victoria airport, where a spokesman said the aircraft was operated by the Victoria Flying Club. <\/p>\n

Flight radar shows it flew straight to Vancouver\u2019s airport before circling for about 25 minutes.<\/p>\n

Police said it landed at YVR at about 1:45 p.m., and social-media videos show a swarm of police vehicles closing in on the taxiing plane, before the bearded pilot emerges and walks backward toward officers who train their weapons on him. <\/p>\n

Norad confirmed on Wednesday that it scrambled F-15 fighter jets in response to the alleged hijacking.<\/p>\n

A spokeswoman for the North American Aerospace Defence Command said additional F-18 fighters were also being readied to respond, but the Cessna landed before those planes were deployed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can confirm that the civilian pilot landed his aircraft before the fighters intercepted it,\u201d she said. \u201cSo, an interception did not occur because of the aircraft landing.\u201d<\/p>\n

A recorded conversation involving a Vancouver air traffic controller suggests the alleged hijacking may have been motivated by \u201csome type of protest.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the conversation, which is part of an online archive of air traffic recordings, the grounded pilot of a commercial jet asks why his plane is being held at the gate.<\/p>\n

An unidentified air traffic controller responds that a Cessna is circling about 500 feet over the airport in an apparent protest, and the situation could last \u201ca couple hours,\u201d although the Cessna landed about 10 minutes later.<\/p>\n

The controller and the grounded pilot also discuss when such an incident last occurred, and one of them is heard saying, \u201cMaybe the \u201970s.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another recording of a radio conversation between airport operations for arrivals and departures that occurred while the aircraft was circling above says the suspect \u201cexpected to be arrested.\u201d<\/p>\n

The incident resulted in what YVR called a 39-minute \u201cground stop\u201d for arrivals.<\/p>\n

Vancouver air-traffic control first mentioned a \u201crogue aircraft\u201d shortly after 1 p.m. on Tuesday, asking nearby aircraft to keep an eye out for the Cessna and to inform controllers of any need to \u201cmanoeuvre as necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Victoria Flying Club said no details could be shared due to an active and ongoing investigation \u201cwith numerous factors still being assessed.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Landings at Vancouver International Airport were stopped for more than half an hour…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":68957,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2148,2138,671,104,2132,692,2147,2131,2143,2144,2140,2133,2130,79,407,746,2142,2137,2159,2134,2135,454,2139,1165,728,2149,108,2154,2155,50,2157,2152,2156,2150,2153,2136,85,2146,80,2145,2151,1458,158,1164,2141,1154,107,2158],"class_list":{"0":"post-68956","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-alberta","9":"tag-arts-news","10":"tag-bc","11":"tag-breaking-news","12":"tag-breaking-news-video","13":"tag-british-columbia","14":"tag-canada","15":"tag-canada-news","16":"tag-canada-sports","17":"tag-canada-sports-news","18":"tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","19":"tag-canadian-breaking-news","20":"tag-canadian-news","21":"tag-economy","22":"tag-education","23":"tag-environment","24":"tag-federal-government","25":"tag-foreign-news","26":"tag-globe-and-mail","27":"tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","28":"tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","29":"tag-government","30":"tag-life-news","31":"tag-lifestyle","32":"tag-local-news","33":"tag-manitoba","34":"tag-national-news","35":"tag-new-brunswick","36":"tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","37":"tag-news","38":"tag-northwest-territories","39":"tag-nova-scotia","40":"tag-nunavut","41":"tag-ontario","42":"tag-pei","43":"tag-photos","44":"tag-political-news","45":"tag-political-opinion","46":"tag-politics","47":"tag-politics-news","48":"tag-quebec","49":"tag-sports-news","50":"tag-technology","51":"tag-travel","52":"tag-trudeau","53":"tag-us-news","54":"tag-world-news","55":"tag-yukon"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}