A Canadian man has been charged with hijacking a small plane after he caused a security scare at Vancouver’s airport this week.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said Thursday Shaheer Cassim, 39, has been charged with hijacking, constituting terrorism, over the incident Tuesday that saw the North American Aerospace Defense Command scramble F-15 fighter jets before the plane safely landed.
The RCMP said he seized control of a Cessna 172 at Victoria International Airport on Vancouver Island by threatening a flight instructor, before flying about 40 miles to Vancouver.
In a recording of air traffic control posted to liveatc.net, an official can be heard stating: “We have an incident right above our airspace here — a hijacked 172,” the Vancouver Sun reported.
Images published by public broadcaster CBC and video shared online showed the small white Cessna surrounded by security vehicles on a runway after landing in Vancouver.
“Investigators have determined the suspect acted with an ideological motive to disrupt airspace,” Sgt. Tammy Lobb said in a statement.
A man with the same name and who resembles Cassim posted on social media that he was a “messenger of Allah” and a “Messiah” sent to save humanity from climate change.
He said “the Angel Gabriel appeared before me and gave me a message from Allah.”
Cassim’s last post warns about “abrupt runaway global warming” that will cause humans to go extinct within a few years.
Cassim also said in the post that he is “Sam Carana,” who runs the “Arctic News” blog that describes itself as a place where contributors “all share a deep concern about the way climate change is unfolding in the Arctic and the threat that this poses for the world at large.”
His Facebook profile says he was employed from 2008 to 2010 by now-defunct KD Air, a small airline based on Vancouver Island.
Airline’s former owners “very surprised”
The airline’s former owners, Diana and Lars Banke, said in an interview Wednesday that Cassim was one of the smartest and best pilots they ever worked with, calling him a fast learner who was highly intelligent.
But Lars Banke said Cassim left the airline after getting “bored” and then went to medical school. He also said Cassim believed the world was coming to an end.
Diana Banke said she was “very surprised” to hear of Cassim’s charges, saying he was quite young when he worked for them and was “like a kid.”
Lars Banke said he recalled that Cassim was somewhat interested in environmentalism, but he was unaware of any kind of religious beliefs.
“He never spoke religion with us,” Diana Banke said.
“I’m really surprised that he would’ve done something like this,” she added.
In 2012, Cassim held a news conference before going on a cross-country bicycle ride to raise awareness for global warming.
British Columbia Premier David Eby said when asked about the incident Thursday that it was a “bizarre moment,” and the fact that it ended without a more significant disruption at the airport is a “testament” to the skill of responders who talked the suspect down.
Vancouver International Airport said in a statement that nine inbound flights were diverted during the incident with a temporary halt to operations ordered across the airport in the West Coast city. Flights were grounded for 39 minutes.
Airport head of communications Stephen Smart told the CBC that it “could have lasted a lot longer.”
