‘A stab in the heart’: B.C. flight school employees shocked by attack on owner

A Pitt Meadows businessman coming home with his family was suddenly ambushed by masked men with bats.

The shocking attack on Pitt Meadows, B.C., businessman John Ling last month has left employees at the Canadian Aviation College—where he is owner and president—rattled.

“Well it’s certainly very upsetting to know that this happened in our little Pitt Meadows,” Iris Challoner, the college’s director of student success and academic support, told CTV News on Friday. “It was certainly shocking to all of us.”

Video shared by Ling’s lawyer appears to show the victim and his family returning to their home on the evening of Sept. 26.

Moments later, Ling is attacked by two masked men with baseball bats. His wife tries to stop them, and a third man in black is seen crawling under Ling’s car—with his lawyer believing there was an attempt to place a tracker.

Ling has left the country with his family, returning to his native China.

“He is of course fearful that whoever ordered this will um, you know, want to finish the job and attack him again,” Ling’s lawyer Russell Robertson told CTV News on Thursday.

It comes as Ling is involved in a legal dispute involving his flight school.

“That flight school and his ownership of it has been the subject of some litigation that’s been going on,” Robertson said.

There’s no indication the legal dispute has any connection to the attack.

Challoner spoke fondly of ling during an interview, adding the school has been operating as normal since the attack.

She says counselling has been made available for staff and students if needed.

“It’s a stab in the heart. It really, really hurts. And to see it happening to a good man like John is really disheartening,” she said. “He suffers from concussion symptoms and some ligament and tissue damage, but we are grateful that there are no breaks or long term consequences.”

Ridge Meadows RCMP say they are investigating, with early indications suggesting this may have been targeted.