Stolen small plane circles Vancouver airport as controllers ground flights and pilots abort landing

By Aaron Cooper, CNN
Published 1:09 AM EDT, Wed July 16, 2025

@YyJdaniel/X
Police surround stone plane in Vancouver, Canada on July 15, 2025.
CNN
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A stolen private plane caused a temporary shutdown of the airspace over Vancouver International Airport, one the busiest in Canada, on Tuesday. … The Cessna 172 took off from Victoria International Airport, where it is used for flight training, and flew north about 40 miles to Vancouver and started circling.

“We do have an aircraft that has been hijacked and is in the vicinity of the airport,” a tower controller warned other planes in a recording from the website LiveATC.net. “Just in case anything starts heading toward your you have the ability to move at your discretion.”

People on the ground watched the plane dip low and circle as air traffic controllers moved other aircraft out of the way. … One of those planes was a WestJet Airlines Boeing 737 which was instructed to abort its landing due to the “rogue 172” crossing about four miles in front of them.

“He was doing quite a radical turn at low altitude,” witness Paul Heeney, told CNN newsgathering partner CBC. “I went wow, I wonder if he is in trouble.”

The stolen plane eventually landed safely at Vancouver International and was immediately surrounded by police. The suspect, who was not identified by authorities, was the only person inside and was arrested.

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