A Student Said He Was a Hobby Plane Spotter. He Was Allegedly Taking Photos for the Chinese Government
404 Media Joseph Cox
A Chinese student in Canada is accused of photographing U.S. airport facilities for a Chinese contact. He allegedly hid the trail, used SIM cards, and got paid per shot.
Based on reporting by 404 Media, Joseph Cox — read the original for the full story.
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A Chinese student at the University of Waterloo is accused of crossing into the U.S. to photograph sensitive airport facilities for someone investigators believe was tied to the Chinese government. The new court records say the contact pushed him to use disposable SIM cards, delete chats, and stick to a Huawei phone so he wouldn’t get caught.
The student, Weiheng Zeng, had reportedly entered the U.S. about two dozen times since 2022. In April, someone matching his vehicle was seen inside the FedEx employee parking lot at O’Hare International Airport, where the person appeared to be photographing aircraft and other parts of the airport. Photos in the filing show the person climbing onto a forklift to get a better angle and trying to enter a FedEx truck.
The story got more specific when Customs and Border Protection stopped Zeng again last Sunday. Agents searched his phone and found aircraft photos. Zeng first described the work as hobby spotting and said he posted pictures of model aircraft for a flight radar site. He also explained away images of people in tactical gear holding rifle-style firearms by calling them airsoft.
Then his story shifted. According to the filing, Zeng said a “Chinese Contact” assigned him particular planes and tail numbers, then paid him $20 to $30 per image. He said the contact reached him through an aviation spotter website that the FBI later could not find, and that the person sent what looked like an official badge. The contact also told him to destroy SIM cards, chats, and photos after use.
The alleged task list went beyond Chicago. Zeng said he was asked to go to airports in Orlando, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles, but refused most of those requests. One of the aircraft he photographed was an American United plane with a temporary paint job that made it especially desirable, the record says. In total, Zeng said he made $500 over roughly 18 months, and that the contact was unhappy because the photos were not what was expected.
My take — AI-written commentary, not fact-checked reporting
The hobby-spotter excuse is getting old fast. When a “spotter” is deleting chats, swapping SIM cards, and taking orders on tail numbers, that’s not a pastime — it’s tradecraft with a camera. The ugly part is how cheap this is; a few hundred dollars and a phone can buy a lot of trouble at airports.
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