billy bishop airport

Man causes chaos at Toronto airport after running onto plane and away from security

One man caused quite the commotion at a Toronto airport earlier this month after running onto at least one plane and dodging security between gates on the airport apron. 

The bizarre incident, which occurred on Aug. 16 at approximately 7:30 p.m., was documented in a video uploaded by YouTube channel VASAviation.  

"We have an unknown passenger just walk on our plane," a flight crew member onboard a Porter Airlines flight tells air traffic control. "We're waiting for customs." The aircraft had just landed in Toronto from Newark, New Jersey. 

Soon after, another Porter Airlines flight radios the tower and requests security. 

Next, a Cessna 172 owned by Island Flight School and Charters radios the tower, and says that there looks to be "some commotion" on the apron. 

"There's a passenger running around. He was just running from gate 8 to gate 7. I think he just got tackled down by security," the pilot tells air traffic control. "He's running away from a couple of guys here. They can't contain him."

The tower controller then cancels the landing clearance for the next arriving flight. "There's a loose person down on the apron, so I can't give you a landing clearance," she says. 

Finally, after a few minutes, the airport was able to resume normal operations. 

Ports Toronto, which owns and operates Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, acknowledged the incident in a statement to blogTO. 

"Security staff and Toronto Police Service responded immediately and the person was taken into custody," a spokesperson said.

"Airport and airline staff completed all security checks as required by Transport Canada Security Regulations and normal service resumed within approximately one hour."

Lead photo by

Vadim Rodnev/Shutterstock


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