Services at the Vancouver International Airport came to a brief standstill on Wednesday as federal police received a report that a small plane had been hijacked, officials said. According to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in British Columbia, the alert came in at 1.10 pm (local time), reporting that a Cessna 172 “had been hijacked from the Vancouver Island area and was entering into airspace near Vancouver International Airport,” reported CBS News.Officials stated that the suspect was the sole occupant of the aircraft.“We do have an aircraft that has been hijacked and is in the vicinity of the airport,” a tower controller warned other aircraft, according to audio captured on the website LiveATC.net, reported CNN. “Just in case anything starts heading toward you, you have the ability to move at your discretion.”The plane was seen to be flying low and banking to the right, and a “few minutes later, we saw a second pass … the plane was making a big clockwise circle,” said witness Paul Heeney, as quoted by CBC. This incident led to a temporary halt in flight services at the Vancouver International Airport for 39 minutes. Nine inbound flights were diverted to other airports. A WestJet Airlines Boeing 737 was asked to abort its landing due to a “rogue 172” crossing roughly four miles ahead of it. The suspect was “arrested without incident” as per the RCMP when it landed at the airport at 1.45 pm (local time). Officials have not yet disclosed further details about the suspect.The Cessna 172, typically used for flight training, departed from Victoria International Airport and flew approximately 40 miles north to Vancouver, where it began circling.
