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Colin Williamson, president of the Victoria Flying Club, said that what happened on Tuesday afternoon was a “one in a million situation.”
“This has never happened before, so we are all a little bit surprised, would be a mild way of putting it,” he said.
The Victoria Flying School has been operating for almost 80 years but has never dealt with a situation where a plane was taken by an unauthorized person.
Williamson said he happened to be landing at Victoria’s International Airport on Tuesday afternoon when he noticed a Cessna 172 taking its time to take off.
“I just assumed, you know, student pilot,” he said.
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“Student pilots can be a bit slow. Grabbed my lunch and I see the security car drive up here, and see the RCMP going into the tower and then the RCMP here and I realize, oh, this is not an ordinary day.”
A man who took control of one of the club’s planes then flew it to Vancouver International Airport, forcing them to close their airspace, ground flights and divert nine others.
He was eventually arrested by Richmond RCMP officers on the tarmac of the north runway.
“We’ve heard some rumours about, yeah, he just walked out the door and the keys were in the plane and he flew the plane,” Williamson said.
He confirmed the suspect was not a member of the club and the instructor involved was doing OK but he could not provide any further details.
“Unfortunately, I cannot speak to you about that,” he said.
“Because police are clearly very concerned about conducting the investigation in the proper manner.”
Former pilot Paul Gooch said the outcome of what happened could have been so much worse.
“I think we are very fortunate that the guy that hijacked the airplane did not crash it into some residential area or into some airport facilities,” he said.
The club will now be reviewing its procedures but it is too soon to say if there will be any changes.
Staff have been offered counselling and time off, if necessary.
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