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An intoxicated male allegedly claiming to be CEO of the Toronto Raptors caused chaos at Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport earlier this month, prompting at least one plane to abort its landing and leading security on a brief chase around parked aircraft.
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The action, documented in a video posted last week by popular YouTuber VASAviation, began a little after 7 p.m. on Aug. 16.
“We had an unknown passenger just walk onto our plane,” someone on a Porter Airlines aircraft, which had just arrived in Toronto from Newark, N.J., remarks over the radio.
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A short time later, a second Porter aircraft parked at an adjacent gate, radios the tower to request security at the gate.
That was when C-GKWM, a Cessna 172 owned by Island Flight School and Charters, taxies onto the apron and is treated to a front-row seat to the action.
“Looks like there’s some commotion at Gate 7,” the pilot tells the tower.
“Looks like a security incident on one of the Dash-8s,” the tower controller tells the Cessna.
“You can see better than I can.”
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In response, the Cessna pilot reports a “passenger running around” the apron — the restricted area around the gates where parked planes load and unload passengers.
“He was just running from Gate 8 to Gate 7,” the pilot says.
“I think he just got tackled down by security.”
Eyewitness accounts suggest an intoxicated male entered a number of aircraft, telling flight crews he was the CEO of the Toronto Raptors.
One video commenter suggests the man made it to the rear of one plane and managed to open the aircraft’s rear door to exit.
Security’s attempts to contain the accused were apparently unsuccessful.
“Not at all,” the Cessna pilot tells the tower controller after she asks if the suspect is being subdued.
“He’s running away from a couple of guys here. They can’t contain him.”
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That prompts the tower controller to cancel the landing clearance for her next arriving flight, Jazz 7975 arriving from Montreal, and advise other aircraft waiting to land of the situation.
“There is a loose person down on the apron so I can’t give you a landing clearance,” she says.
A short time later, police and security managed to take the man into custody.
While Porter declined to comment, Ports Toronto — which manages the airport — acknowledged the incident and said airport operations soon returned to normal.
“Security staff and Toronto Police Service responded immediately and the person was taken into custody,” Ports Toronto spokesperson Jessica Pellerin told the Toronto Sun.
“Airport and airline staff completed all security checks as required by Transport Canada Security Regulations and normal service resumed within approximately one hour.”
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