A 39-year-old Canadian man is in custody after police say he hijacked a plane and flew it nearly 40 miles.
Police arrested Shaheer Cassim after he allegedly threatened a flight instructor and took control of a small passenger plane Tuesday afternoon at Victoria International Airport in British Columbia, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said in a statement. From there, Cassim flew 40 miles before safely landing at the Vancouver International Airport, police say.
No one was injured, and only one person was on board the plane, the Vancouver International Airport said.
The incident prompted a massive security response, including police, K-9 units and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Air Services. The North American Aerospace Defense Command was also scrambling to send in F-15 fighter jets before Cassim landed, the Associated Press reports.
Cassim “acted with an ideological motive to disrupt airspace,” Sergeant Tammy Lobb said. He has been charged with hijacking, constituting terrorism. His next court appearance will be Wednesday. Court records do not yet have an attorney listed for Cassim, CNN reports.
Cassim boarded the plane after booking an air tour of Victoria and threatened the pilot with a knife, police sources told CTV News. The pilot escaped just before the plane took off.
Footage of the arrest shows police vehicles parked on a Vancouver airport runway in front of a small, white plane. A man can be seen getting out of the plane with his hands up as police aim guns at him.
A recording of the air traffic control audio reveals controllers warned of “an incident” involving “a hijacked 172,” referring to the plane’s model, a Cessna 172, The Vancouver Sun reports.
“They are flying above us at this time,” the air traffic controller said. “I cannot give you any further updates, and we are on visual on the aircraft, and just standby for further instructions.”
The incident resulted in a 39-minute ground stop for arriving planes, during which nine inbound flights were diverted to other airports, the Vancouver International Airport said. Flights started operating normally again within a few hours. FlightAware data shows 143 arrivals into Vancouver were delayed on Tuesday.
Cassim flew for the now-defunct Canadian airline KD Air from 2008 to 2010, the Associated Press reports. The airline’s former owners, Diana and Lars Banke, said Cassim was an intelligent person and a fast learner.
Cassim believed the world was ending, and left the airline because he was "bored" and wanted to attend medical school, Lars said. Cassim was very young when he worked for the airline, Diana said, noting she was “very surprised” to hear that he was charged.
Police have yet to reveal the details of Cassim’s alleged motive.
A social media account using Cassim’s name and a photo resembling him made a post Monday claiming he is a “messenger of Allah” and a “Messiah” who will save humanity from climate change, the Associated Press reports. In the most recent post, the user warns climate change will cause humans to go extinct in a matter of years.
The Independent has contacted the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for comment.
