Overview
- Shaheer Cassim, who pleaded guilty in Richmond court Tuesday, admitted to hijacking a small plane and to disrupting operations at Vancouver International Airport.
- Federal prosecutors say both offences qualify as terrorist activities under Canadian law and carry a maximum life sentence.
- The case stems from July 15, 2025, when he threatened a flight instructor at the Victoria Flying Club, took a Cessna 172 to Vancouver, and forced a 39-minute ground stop with nine diversions as NORAD scrambled jets.
- After he landed at YVR, RCMP arrested him without incident, and police cited an ideological motive consistent with his posts about a climate-change mission.
- He is a former commercial pilot who once worked for KD Air, and former owners described him as skilled and convinced the world was ending.