Civilian Tries To Fly Plane Following Bizarre Security Breach At Pearson Airport
Posted January 5, 2008 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A bizarre incident at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport led to a 20-year-old man being tied up on an Air Canada flight.
Twenty-year-old Jonathan Simpson of Toronto was due to appear in Brampton court Saturday following a security breath in which he allegedly bolted past guards and into the cockpit of an Air Canada Jazz jet.
Witnesses say Simpson sat in the pilot’s seat and told the co-pilot he wanted to fly the plane, which was about to depart for Charlottetown, P.E.I.
At the time the captain was outside doing a pre-flight walkthrough, leaving the unenviable task of subduing the man to Andy Montague, an Air Canada Jazz manager who was a passenger on the plane. Montague claims he was able to talk Simpson out of the cockpit and tie him up until police arrived.
Police say no drugs were involved, and there’s been nothing to suggest he was armed. Simpson faces charges of assault, threatening, and mischief.
