This Russian cargo plane remains grounded at Toronto Pearson Airport in Mississauga, where it has sat on the tarmac since Feb. 27, 2022. (Photo: INsauga.com)

Standing 70 feet tall and measuring 225 feet in length, one of the world’s largest planes has remained a curious sight to those driving by Toronto Pearson Airport in Mississauga the past four years.

It’ll be precisely four years on Friday — 1,461 days to be exact, accounting for the leap year’s additional day in 2024 — since the huge Russian cargo plane was grounded and subsequently became stranded at Canada’s biggest and busiest airport.

The Russian-owned Antonov An-124 aircraft, presenting a wingspan of some 240 feet, has become an airport fixture and remains in place on the tarmac while Ottawa and Russia wage an ongoing legal battle for its possession.

Described as the world’s largest mass-produced cargo plane, the aircraft has been parked at Pearson since Feb. 27, 2022, shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine and subsequent closing of Canadian airspace to Russian-owned aircraft.

The cargo plane remains backed up to a fence separating the airport from nearby Silver Dart Drive and, just steps beyond that, the always-busy Highway 427.

When the massive aircraft was briefly moved a short distance within the confines of Pearson last September, the action piqued the curiosity of passersby, media and others.

View of the stranded aircraft at Toronto Pearson Airport in Mississauga in August 2024. (Photo: INsauga.com)

As it turned out, the Antonov An-124 was moved simply for “maintenance purposes,” a Canadian government spokesperson told INsauga.com at the time.

It’s not known how long the legal battle between Canada and Russia will continue. Until that matter is settled, the aircraft will likely remain in place.

The Canadian government, which seized the plane on June 8, 2023, wants to deliver the cargo aircraft to Ukraine as part of an aid package.

A Global Affairs Canada spokesperson told INsauga.com this week the matter remains unresolved.

“The forfeiture process commenced by Canada in March 2025 remains ongoing. Next steps will be determined in accordance with relevant legislation and court processes,” the spokesperson wrote in an email.

Beyond that, the spokesperson offered no additional details, only to confirm that the plane remains stranded at Toronto Pearson Airport.

Canada took further legal action in 2025

After seizing the aircraft in June 2023, the Canadian government took further legal action in 2025 in seeking to gain full possession of the massive aircraft, which stands roughly seven storeys tall and is three-quarters the length of an NFL football field.

During an unannounced visit to Kyiv in 2023 to show Canada’s support for Ukraine’s fight against Russia, then-prime minister Justin Trudeau told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy the seized Russian-registered plane would soon be given to his nation so it could never be used by Russia again.

However, Russia’s Volga-Dnepr Airlines, the registered owner of the aircraft, took issue with the seizure and reportedly approached Ottawa later in 2023 to begin discussions about having the cargo plane returned.

Subsequently, the international tug-of-war wound up in Canadian court and the legal tussle continues.

In February 2022, the large plane was bringing a shipment of COVID-19 test kits from China to Pearson via Russia and then Anchorage, Alaska, where it reportedly stopped for refuelling before landing in Mississauga.


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