A man charged on Wednesday with allegedly hijacking a plane in Canada also appeared to post on Facebook that he is the “messiah sent to save humanity from climate change,” according to local reports and police.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) charged 39-year-old Shaheer Cassim with one count of hijacking after he “acted with an ideological motive,” allegedly threatened a flight instructor and hijacked a plane before landing at Victoria International Airport (YVR), according to the RCMP website. The former commercial pilot allegedly posted on his social media and personal blog that the “angel Gabriel” gave him a “message from Allah” that the Arctic Sea ice is melting and will soon “turn Earth into Venus.”
“Investigators have determined the suspect acted with an ideological motive to disrupt airspace,” Sergeant Tammy Lobb, media relations officer with the Canadian Federal Policing Pacific Region said. “Thankfully, no one was injured during this incident.”
The RCMP and YVR did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment. Cassim could not be reached.
Cassim allegedly took control of the small Cessna 172 plane on July 15 from the Vancouver Island area and was apprehended by RCMP officers after landing at YVR, according to police. The incident reportedly led to F-15 fighter jets scrambling to secure the situation before the plane landed, The Canadian Press reported.
Cassim’s Facebook profile states that he was a commercially licensed pilot at the now-defunct charter airline KD Air from 2008 to 2010, and he posted some of his perceived climate revelations to Facebook on Monday.
“The Arctic sea ice is going to disappear within two years. When that happens, huge amounts of methane are going to erupt from the Arctic Ocean, triggering abrupt runaway global warming, turning Earth into Venus. Humans will go extinct within the first few years,” Cassim wrote. “We must begin geoengineering immediately to stabilize the Arctic ice sheet and prevent human extinction.”
Cassim wrote on his blog that “secret geoengineering” by the government has been preventing the “catastrophic release of Arctic methane” on June 2.
“President Donald Trump denies global geoengineering. President Donald Trump is not only a felon but also a liar. He deceived the whole nation when he said global warming is a hoax,” Cassim wrote.
“All religions in the world must become peaceful,” Cassim wrote on his blog in November 2024. “Muslims must not kill in Allah’s name. Shias and Sunnis must not kill each other. Osama bin Laden admitted it both in writing and on video: he orchestrated the September 11 terror attacks.”
KD Air’s former owners, Diana and Lars Banke, told The Canadian Press that Cassim was one of the best pilots they’d ever worked with.
“I’m really surprised that he would’ve done something like this,” Diana Banke told the outlet.
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