Vancouver Airport Temporarily Halts Flights Amid Security Incident

‘Rogue’ Cessna 172 departed from the Canadian facility before circling near Vancouver for over half an hour.

Caleb Revill

Wednesday, July 16, 2025 at 04:27 PM ET

Verified

Edited By:

Travis Tingle

A Cessna 172 [Credit: Cessna]

Key Takeaways:

Vancouver International Airport (YVR) temporarily grounded all arriving flights for 39 minutes due to a security incident involving a small private aircraft.
The incident was later confirmed to be a stolen Cessna 172, which caused a WestJet flight to abort its landing and led to numerous flight delays and diversions.
The lone occupant of the stolen aircraft landed safely at YVR and was subsequently taken into custody by RCMP.

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The Vancouver International Airport (CYVR) temporarily grounded all flights for arriving aircraft after a small private aircraft taking off began circling about 40 miles north.

The Canadian airport notified the public of a security incident that took place on Tuesday in a news release. While the facility didn’t specify what occurred, it did state that the Royal Canadian Mountain Police (RCMP) responded and arrivals were halted for 39 minutes.