In every issue of ASI we record incidents
of hijacks, attempted hijacks, air rage, sabotage and airport
attacks. Scroll down into history.
|
| An Alliance Air flight landed in New Delhi with
both passengers and crew believing the flight had been hijacked.
Air traffic control advised the crew that they had received
reports that a hijack was in progress. The problem started with
a hoax call but was exacerbated by miscommunication. |
| A Siberian Airlines Tu-154 en route from Tel Aviv
to Novosibirsk in Siberia exploded over the Black Sea. At the
time this issue of ASI went to print it is believed that all 76
passengers and crew were killed, 51 of whom were Israelis.
Whilst there is speculation that this was a terrorist act, most
believe that a stray missile fired by the Ukranian military
during a training exercise was the actual cause. |
| Air France suspended all flights in and out of
Paris-Orly airport following anonymous threats. The terminals
were evacuated until police established the threat was a hoax |
| The airport was closed following a bomb threat. |
| Shortly after Air Canada flight AC 792 departed
for Toronto, Javid Naghani, an Iranian citizen resident in the
US, was apprehended smoking in the toilet. The passenger became
verbally abusive and uttered an anti-American threat, causing
the aircraft to return to Los Angeles under escort by the US Air
Force. |
| According to Russia's Interfax news agency, 9
tons of explosives and 594 detonators were found, in Moscow, on
a cargo plane bound for Kazakhstan from Vienna, Austria. The
cargo was allegedly sent by Spain's Union Espanol to the
Kazakhstan Corporation |
| A passenger sent a friend a joke text message on
his mobile phone indicating that he was on a hijacked Japan
Airlines flight en route to Seoul from Kansai. The friend,
believing the message, contacted the authorities who met the man
off the flight in Seoul |
| A Kenya Airways plane, en route to Dar es Salaam,
returned to Nairobi following a telephone bomb threa |
| An American Airlines flight bound for Mexico City
was turned back to Los Angeles International Airport after the
FBI received a threat |
| A British passenger aboard a Cathay Pacific
flight en route to Hong Kong via Kuwait was arrested following a
threat he made, when refused additional alcohol based on his
intoxicated state, that a bomb was on board the aircraft |
| A Virgin Airlines flight en route from Heathrow
to New York diverted to Newfoundland following a bomb threat. 4
Canadian jet fighters escorted the aircraft to Goose Bay, Canada |
| A Singapore Airlines flight returned to Frankfurt
following the discovery of a note in the toilets warning that a
bomb was on board |
| A 21-year-old Australian, Sinan Safett Acar,
travelling to Paris on Air France was arrested in Toronto after
joking he had a bomb in his suitcase. He was later given a 60
day gaol sentence. |
| A 21-year-old Australian, Sinan Safett Acar,
travelling to Paris on Air France was arrested in Toronto after
joking he had a bomb in his suitcase. He was later given a 60
day gaol sentence |
| 20 explosive-laden boats with suicidal Tamil
Tiger guerillas on board attacked a ship, carrying 1,200 Sri
Lankan soldiers, off the coast in Trincomalee, northeast of
Colombo. 6 guerillas were killed and 40 soldiers were wounded |
| Constantinos Carpis, aged 36, was arrested having
told American Airlines ticket agents at Houston that he had a
nuclear bomb in his baggage. He was travelling to his home in
Australia. |
| A 55-year old employee of New Zealand's prison
service was arrested as he boarded a flight at Auckland for
Palmerston North. He had allegedly joked with a friend about
having a bomb in his bag |
| A man was arrested at Teeside International
airport, having claimed that he had Semtex explosives in his
pockets. He was travelling to Tenerife |
| Orlando International Airport was evacuated
following a bomb threat. The fire department's bomb squad
examined bags left in the terminal and determined there was no
bomb |
| A Singapore Airlines flight routed to
Johannesburg from Singapore was delayed following the receipt of
a hoax bomb threat. The threat was allegedly sent by e-mail from
a New Zealander employed by IBM |
| 11/09/2001 |
BOSTON/NEW YORK
|
| American Airlines flight AA 11, a B-767, departed
Boston at 0745 for Los Angeles. Following a hijack by suicidal
terrorists, it crashed into the north tower of the World Trade
Center at 0845. 92 passengers and crew were killed, together
with thousands at the World Trade Center |
| 11/09/2001 |
BOSTON/NEW YORK
|
| United Airlines flight UA 175, a B-767, departed
Boston at 0758 for Los Angeles. Following a hijack by suicidal
terrorists, it crashed into the south tower of the World Trade
Center at 0905. 65 passengers and crew were killed, together
with thousands at the World Trade Center |
| American Airlines flight AA 77, a B-757, departed
Dulles at 0810 for Los Angeles. Following a hijack by suicidal
terrorists, it crashed into the Pentagon at 0939. 64 passengers
and crew were killed together with hundreds at the Pentagon |
| 11/09/2001 |
NEWARK/PENNSYLVANIA
|
| United Airlines flight UA 93, a B-757, departed
Newark at 0842 for San Francisco. Following a hijacking by
suicidal terrorists, it crashed in Stony Creek Township,
Pennsylvania at 1003. It is believed the aircraft was headed for
the White House, yet a passenger action taken against the
hijackers caused the aircraft to crash. There was some
speculation that the aircraft had been shot down by the US Air
Force. 45 passengers and crew were killed. |
| Patrick Dolan Critton, aged 54, was arrested at
his home in Mount Vernon for allegedly hijacking an Air Canada
flight in 1971. Armed with a gun and a grenade he had demanded
to be taken to Cuba, although he allowed the passengers to
deplane in Toronto. Critton is believed to have stayed in Cuba
for 3 years, then moved to Tanzania until he returned to New
York in 1994, where he has been a teacher ever since |
| Various conflicting reports emerged as to the
reason an Aero Lloyd Airbus diverted to Naples. The flight was
routed from Catania, Sicily to Berlin. Some agencies reported
that a man had tried to hijack the flight to Tunisia, his native
country, using wax candles that he said were sticks of dynamite.
Other reports indicate that a mentally disturbed man had a panic
attack that necessitated the diversion |
| Mekhti Guseinli, a member of one of Azerbaijan's
main opposition parties, was sentenced to 9 years imprisonment
for attempting to hijack a domestic flight last November. His
attempt failed as he was quickly overpowered by security staff
on board |
| A grand jury indicted a London-based Algerian, Dr
Haydar Abu Doha, on charges of plotting to bomb Los Angeles
airport on the eve of the millennium. It is alleged that he is a
prominent member of al-Qaeda. Abu Doha is currently in custody
in London awaiting extradition to the US |
| A bomb placed in a white Renault 19 at Madrid
Barajas Airport's Terminal 2 exploded. No injuries were caused
as a warning had been received. ETA is thought to be responsible |
| A Canada 3000 flight, en route from Ontario to
Britain, landed at St John's International Airport after an
83-year-old Canadian woman became unruly |
| Scotland's High Court announced that Abdel Baset
al-Megrahi, the Libyan secret agent found guilty of the
Lockerbie bombing, could appeal against his conviction. The
first hearing will be on October 15th |
| A 37-year-old Australian was arrested for having
groped a stewardess' buttocks. The man was travelling with his
girlfriend from Sydney to Kuala Lumpur on Malaysian Airline
System. |
| Earl Quincey Washington, 54, was taken into
custody for allegedly threatening to punch a 10-year-old girl
and her grandmother on a Northwest Airlines flight en route from
Detroit to Osaka |
| A China Eastern Airlines flight from Los Angeles
to Beijing diverted after a 36-year-old passenger stripped to
his underwear, threatened passengers and the flight crew, and
attempted to open one of the doors. It later became apparent
that he was ill and had probably overdosed on his medication |
| 10/08/2001 |
KEY WEST, FLORIDA
|
| A Fly Key West Piper Cherokee, normally chartered
by customers wishing to have sex in an aeroplane, was hijacked
by an elderly Cuban couple. The plane crashed into the sea
following a fight in the cockpit. The pilot, Thomas Hayashi,
survived but the hijackers were killed. The pilot told
investigators that once airborne the male passenger held a knife
to his throat and demanded to be flown to Cuba |
| A 28-year-old Australian resident, Johnson Ty
Damon, had to be restrained with handcuffs on a Malaysian
Airline Systems flight from London to Kuala Lumpur. He threw his
food tray on the floor, threatened a flight attendant with a
knife from his meal tray, and then pushed him to the floor,
injuring his forehead and hand. Damon was later gaoled for 12
weeks and fined $540 |
| Israeli Minister of Tourism, Rehavam Ze'evi,
spoke out against El Al's privatisation on security grounds. He
also opposes setting up a joint IsraelJordan airport for Eilat
and Taba. The project began soon after a peace treaty was signed
between the two countries, has yet to be implemented. Ze'evi
believes that Israel should concentrate on operating a single
independent airport in Eilat, since unexpected developments on
the diplomatic front are liable to shut down a joint airport. |
| A car bomb was defused close to the passenger
terminal at Belfast International Airport. Security forces
discovered 20kg of home-made explosives in a stolen Volvo at the
long stay car park. Two warnings were received, the first by a
Belfast newspaper and the second by a Catholic priest. It is
believed the act was perpetrated by the Real IRA. |
| The FAA announced it is seeking $99,000 in civil
penalties against American Airlines for allegedly failing to
apply appropriate security measures on six flights on June 25
2000, including the improper transportation of unaccompanied
bags, the failure to perform a passenger ID checks and the
failure to ask appropriate security questions regarding checked
bags. Upon notification, American took immediate correctitive
action at the airports where violations were found in order to
bring the airline's security measures into compliance. |
30-Jul-01
|
HAOLIFAX, CANADA
|
| A British Airways B-777 flight from Atlanta to
London diverted when William Kay Cummings became aggressive to
stewards, Smoked in the toilets and made comments about bombs on
aircraft. He complained about his seating arrangement in economy
class and demanded to be moved to the roomier business class
because of his size. Mr. Cummings, head coach of a U.S. team
headed to Scotland for the World Highland Games, blamed his
actions on a combination of alcohol and medication to curb his
fear of flying. |
| Spanish police deactivated a car bomb in a
parking lot at Malaga airport. The Peugeot car bomb, containing
50 to 60 kilograms of explosives, was planted by the Basque
separatist group ETA. Bomb disposal experts found the vehicle
loaded with explosives 15 minutes before it was set to explode,
as warned by an anonymous voice calling San Sebastian's fire
department on behalf of ETA. |
| Separatist rebels, firing guns and mortars,
attacked Colombo's Bandaranaike International Airport and air
force base on the anniversary of 1983 riots seen as the start of
the country's civil war. Sri Lankan Airlines said five of its 12
Airbus passenger planes have been knocked out of service, with
two Airbus A340s and an A330 being destroyed and the others
damaged. After six hours of explosions, automatic weapons fire
and pistol shots, police said that all 9 guerrillas had been
killed, along with 5 government soldiers. 12 troops, a Russian
flight engineer for Sri Lankan Airlines and a Sri Lankan
journalist were wounded. Most passengers and airport employees
were evacuated to nearby hotels. |
"An Air India pilot reported the firing of a
missile in the direction of his A310 when the aircraft was in
Somalian airspace at 33,000 feet en route from Nairobi to
Mumbai. According to Air India officials, the commander said he
""switched off the
aircraft Lights and accelerated to get out of the territory as
fast as possible"" : The crew of a Kenya Airways
flight from Mumbai to Nairobi passing through the territory at
the same time confirmed the explosion." |
| 50 security guards employed by Group 4 Securitas
staged a strike at Ansett Australia's Melbourne Airport terminal
A spokesperson for the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous
Workers union said that the 24?hour action was taken after the
company withdrew a pay offer. Ansett said that the security
company had put contingency plans in place and that passenger
movement was not be affected. |
| The government ordered troops to reopen Fiji's
international airport after a strike disrupted schedules and
left passengers stranded. Troops manned emergency rescue posts
and police tightened airport security after striking
firefighters and 280 other staff members covered by the Fiji
Public Service Association had walked out. |
| Mokhtar Haouari, an Algerian national, was
convicted of "conspiracy to supply material support to a
terrorist act" in respect of his pivotal role in a plot to
detonate a suitcase bomb at Los Angeles International Airport in
the days preceding January 1st 2000. The prosecution case hinged
on the testimony of two co-conspirators, Ahmed Ressam and Abdel
Ghani Meskini, both already convicted. The bombing plot was
foiled when Ressam was arrested crossing the Canadian border in
a car laden with explosives on December 14th, 1999. |
| Amir Amirsaleh, a 45-year old Iranian, was
arrested in Maui after he allegedly pinched or otherwise touched
a flight attendant on a SunTrips harter flight from San
Francisco to Maui via Honolulu. It turned out that Amirsaleh,
who was living in Los Angeles, apparently had overstayed his
tourist visa by about two years and is likely to be deported
rather than charged. |
| It emerged that many European carriers, including
British Airways, KLM, SAS, Swissair and the Belgian carrier
Sabena, have stopped shipping hivalue cargo through Brussels
National Airport following a spate of robberies and security
breaches at the airport. |
| Parts of Ben Gurion airport were evacuated
following receipt of a warning that a suicide bomber would
infiltrate the airport in a vehicle. |
| In advance of Libyan leader Mu'ammar Qadafi's
arrival in Zambia for the Organisation of African Unity meeting,
Libyan security personnel physically checked the rifles of
soldiers mounting the guard of honour at the airport to ensure
none had live ammunition! |
| Two drug couriers who are believed to have ties
with the Abu Sayyaf were arrested by the Aviation Security Group
at the Manila Domestic Airport today just before they were about
to fly off to Cebu City. It is believed that the drug couriers
would sell narcotics in order to earn money for the Abu Sayyaf
to purchase more firearms. |
| A bomb was found near Caracas' Maiquetia Airport
ramp, four hours ahead of President Hugo Chavezs arrival to the
airport. |
| A bomb threat was made against a LOT Airlines
B?767 at Krakow airport following its arrival from Toronto. |
| An EgyptAir flight bound for Cairo was delayed
for 10 hours at JFK following the receipt of an unspecified bomb
threat against the flight. |
14-Jun-01
|
YEREVAN, ARMENIA
|
| According to Armenian sources, two Yerevan-based
British Airways employees, and the wife of one of them, refused
to leave a BA plane they were servicing at Yerevan's Zvartnots
airport. They asked for political asylum and finally managed to
get permission from the British embassy in Yerevan to fly to
London. British Airways flatly denied that the air company's
employees had asked for political asylum in Britain and insist
that the delay to the flight was due to a technical problem. |
| "A stowaway on an aircraft coming in to land
at Heathrow fell to his death in a Homebase (shop) car park
yesterday. Staff at the store (less than 1km from ASI's offices)
in Richmond, West London, discovered the man's body as they
arrived for work at lam. It is thought that the stowaway fell as
the pilot of an unidentified jet lowered the aircraft's landing
gear. Police said the man was of Mediterranean or Middle Eastern
appearance, in his late twenties or early thirties. He was
wearing black jeans and a shirt and carried no
identification." |
| A Cyprus Airways Flight, en route from Moscow to
Larnaca, was diverted to Salonica following an incident
involving four drunken Russians. The group was drinking heavily,
behaving nappropriately, disturbing fellow passengers, making
gestures to a stewardess, throwing food about and smoking in the
aisle. The steward confiscated five empty bottles of vodka and
other alcoholic drinks that they had smuggled on board. |
| Boeing notified federal authorities that it had
found potential sabotage to wires on 10 new undelivered B-737
aircraft. The Seattle office of the FBI said it had launched an
investigation into the incidents at Boeing's Renton, Washington,
aircraft assembly plant. |
| The U.S. Department of Transportation began
surveying passengers in an effort to determine whether racial
profiting is a problem at U.S. airports. Federal officials
require passengers on certain outgoing Northwest Airlines
flights to complete surveys that ask questions about race,
religion, national origin, gender and citizenship. By the end of
the survey the department expects to have answers from about
40,000 passengers on more than 400 flights. Arab-American
leaders said that the government chose Metro airport to be the
test model for its national policy on screening for security
threats because metro Detroit has the highest concentration of
Arab Americans in the country. The Transportation Department
says the information from the surveys will be used to see if the
Computer-Assisted Passenger Prescreening System
disproportionately targets minorities. |
| Six inter-island Hawaiian Airlines flights were
delayed at Maui's Kahului airport following the receipt of a
bomb threat telephoned through to the airport manager's office. |
| The Japanese Red Army guerrilla group is to
disband and reinvent itself 30 years after it was formed. The
organisation's founder, Fusako Shigenobu, ordered the
dissolution and has said that the group would pursue its cause
Legally. "This will be the last statement from the Japanese
Red Army," Shigenobu is quoted as saying in a statement
faxed from jail. The Red Army's move is being linked to the
arrest of many of its members in the past few years, including
five in Beirut in 1997, as well as a shrinking support base. |
| As part of a series of organised demonstrations,
hundreds of flag-waving workers from Aerolineas Argentinas,
fearing job and wage cuts, marched onto the runway at the
country's busiest domestic airport, Aeroparque, and stopped
flights for two hours. The next morning, the protests continued
in passenger terminals at both Ezeiza and Aeroparque airports,
with the unions planning to continue to disrupt flights. |
| 28 MAY 2001 |
FEFLAVIK, ICELAND
|
| A united Airlines B-747 made an emergency landing
after a passenger discovered a bomb threat written in lipstick
on the aircraft's bathroom mirror. The plane en route to
Chicargo from Germany took off again ten hours later following a
detailed search of the aircraft |
| 25 MAY 2001 |
SAN FRANCISCO
|
| A US court accepted that Peter Bradley was
"temporarily insane" and that he had suffered from a
rare outbreak of encephalitis when, on March 16th 2000, he had
entered the cockpit of an Alaska Airlines plane, lunged for the
controls, causing the pilots to temporarily lose control. He was
placed on 18-months of "pre-trial diversion" under
which he must not fly, and has to receive mental health
counselling and continue with medical treatment for the
condition. If Bradley complies with those conditions and others,
the government will dismiss the charges. |
| A judge has ordered the retrial of 11 Afghan
nationals charged with the hijacking of a plane to London in
February 2000. It follows the discharge of a jury last week that
failed to agree on verdicts after 40 hours of deliberations at
the end of a three‑month trial which has cost in excess of
£10 million. Around 77 people on the plane, including members
of the defendants families, are still in Britain seeking asylum.
The defendants were granted conditional bail with many housed in
bail hostels. |
| An SAS flight was evacuated prior to its take off
for Oslo, following the receipt of a telephone bomb threat at a
Braathens office. |
| Two British flights en route to Mexico (one BA
from Heathrow and one Britannia from Manchester), diverted to
Bangor following unruly passenger behaviour on board. |
| 18 MAY 2001 |
MALAGA, SPAIN
|
| A drunken tourist who smashed a bottle into the
face of an air stewardess has been jailed for four years in
Spain. Steven Handy, from Dover, was also ordered to pay £6,000
to his victim, Fiona Weir. Ms Weir, 33, was Left scarred for
life when Handy attacked her with a vodka bottle in November
1998 at the end of an Airtours International flight to Malaga.
The bottle broke and he pushed the jagged glass into her face.
Weir now flies with Flying Colours. |
| A 28 year old man on a KLM flight from Amsterdam
to Newark spat at a flight attendant, threatened passengers and
tried to open the emergency exit while in flight. The friction
started when he ignored requests from crew to turn off his
mobile phone. He then ripped up his passport and said he would
hit passengers and flight attendants. He then took a seat in
business class, claiming he suffered from claustrophobia. He was
handcuffed by the captain and upon arrival in the US, he was put
on the next flight back to Amsterdam where he was arrested and
charged with attempting to endanger the lives of passengers |
| The Danish co-pilot of an aircraft chartered by
the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was killed
in-flight whilst flying over a government-held area of Sudan, en
route to Khartoum. The aircraft was struck twice by objects that
detonated upon impact, damaging the aircraft's cockpit and right
wing. The aircraft's other pilot, who was not injured, flew the
aircraft to the town of Lokichokio, which is a common base for
humanitarian organisations operating in Sudan. |
| Zoe Campbell, 27, was sentenced to nine months
imprisonment for attacking three cabin crew members on a flight
from Florida last May. She had lashed out when told not to smoke
on board. Supervisor Valerie Martinez's nose was broken when she
was head-butted, and two other attendants also needed hospital
treatment. It took 9 people, including passengers and the
Captain to control Campbell, who was restrained in plastic hand
and ankle cuffs. |
| 02 MAY 2001 |
MOGADISHU, SOMALIA
|
| A Somali gunman carrying a U.S. made hand grenade
boarded a light aircraft at Mogadishu's Jazira airport and
threatened to detonate the device unless he was given US$30,000
and flown to another Mogadishu airstrip. He eventually
surrendered and was Later determined to be mentally ill. |
| 26 APRIL 2001 |
BAHR DAR, ETHIOPIA
|
| Five hijackers, four men and one women, burst
into the cockpit of an Antonov 12 plane shortly after take-off
from Bahr Dar in the north-west Ethiopia. They demanded to be
taken to Saudi Arabia, but as plane was not carrying sufficient
fuel, they agreed to be flown to Sudan where a nine-hour
stand-off occurred. According to the Captain, two men knocked on
the cockpit door and said a passenger was sick. They entered the
cockpit supporting a very sick young woman and, as the Captain
turned back to Bahr Dar, two others stormed in waving a pistol.
The first two then took grenades from the boots of the young
woman. The hijackers were identified as military pilot trainees
who had dropped out of flight school. The Antonov was carrying a
crew of 7 and 44 passengers, who were air force personnel
and their families, including 5 children. The hijackers asked to
speak with representatives of the Red Cross, Amnesty
International, and the United Nations after landing in Khartoum,
eventually agreeing to speak with six Sudanese Cabinet ministers
who had arrived at the airport. They then requested political
asylum. Ethiopian officials plan to request their extradition. |
| Garin Noel Mcgeough, a 17 year old Australian,
caused a Singapore Airlines flight to Fankfurt to divert to
India. He swore at the crew and kicked the aircraft wall and a
window when he could not get more alcohol during the flight. He
was Later gaoled for two months. |
| Alexandre Stolerman, aged 52, of Moscow allegedly
got drunk and fought with passengers on an Aeroflot flight from
Moscow to Los Angeles was arrested on a federal charge of
interfering with a flight crew. About three hours into the
flight Stolerman had grabbed a passenger by the throat and then
took a Lighted cigarette from his mouth and pushed it into
another passenger's face. Flight attendants then restrained him
for the remaining nine hours of the flight. |
| Guitarist Peter Buck, who plays with rock group
REM, was arrested at Heathrow and charged with two counts of
assault against British Airways crew members, Mario Agius and
Holly Ward, during a transatlantic flight from Seattle. He is
further accused of being drunk on an aircraft, of damaging a
quantity of crockery belonging to British Airways and of using
threatening behaviour. |
| Examination of a laptop computer that had shown a
positive identification of explosive material resulted in the
authorities evacuating the concourse serving Southwest Airlines
and America West flights. The area remained dosed for 6 hours.
No explosive device was discovered. |
| Identical twins, Crystal and Cynthia Mikula,
aboard a United Airlines B-747 en route to Shanghai from San
Francisco caused the flight to divert to Anchorage. Travelling
to a modelling competition, the girls had a few drinks and then
started screaming and swearing at each other and, eventually,
fighting. One of the twins then said she wished to open the door
for some fresh air and, when a crew member tried to calm her
down, lashed out. Eventually Cynthia was restrained by crew, but
as they did so, her sister attacked them. |
| 16 APRIL 2001 |
COLOMBO, SRI LANKA
|
| Security was increased at Bandaranaike airport
following a report that Eealam was preparing to target tourists
and foreign business travellers. |
| 12 APRIL 2001 |
LARNACA, CYPRUS
|
| An Air Malta flight operating from Tel Aviv to
Luqa landed following a bomb threat to the airline. |
| Weapons, shipped from Austria to the Thai Air
Force, were stolen during a raid at Bangkok Airport by 7 armed
men. A security guard was forced to open the shipment and hand
over the contents before the men escaped in two waiting
vehicles. |
| 9 APRIL 2001 |
CALGARY, CANADA
|
| A Sky West Airlines flight set to depart for Salt
Lake City was searched following a bomb threat made by an
unidentified woman to their reservation office in Los Angeles. |
| 9 APRIL 2001 |
PORT OF SPAIN, TRINIDAD
|
| A BWIA flight was delayed as a result of a bomb
hoax telephoned in to Piarco Airport. |
| 4 APRIL 2001 |
CALI COLOMBIA
|
| An Arrow Air DC-8 en route to bound for Miami was
forced to make an emergency landing when the landing gear failed
to retract. On the ground it emerged that there were two
stowaways hiding in the wheel bay; they were killed. |
| Armed men cut through the perimeter fence and
managed to get as far as a Sabena aircraft, from which they
attempted to steal a cargo of valuables as it was being off
loaded. |
| 29 March 2001 |
SAN FRANCISCO
|
| A federal appeals court upheld the 10-month
prison sentence of a 35-year old Bolivian man, Flavio David
Mendoza, who called in a phony bomb threat to San Francisco
International Airport, hoping to delay a Korea-bound plane so
his girlfriend could catch the flight |
| 28 March 2001 |
LOS ANGELES
|
| A British citizen was arrested for allegedly
hitting a flight attendant while aboard a United Airlines jet
flying from Sydney to Los Angeles. Fraser Alexander Thomas Lonie,
34, appeared to be intoxicated. |
| An American Airlines flight from Dallas to Tokyo
diverted to Anchorage when a passenger, 53year old Motohiro
Suzuki, became unruly. According to the FBI, Suzuki walked
around the plane, striking combative, martial-arts-type stances,
used Japanese profanities and said he wanted one of the other
passengers dead. |
| 23 March 2001 |
PUERTO ORDAZ, VENEZUELA
|
| Tacks began between Colombian leader Andres
Pastrana and Venezuela's President Chavez on the extradition to
Colombia of Jose Maria BalLestas, an alleged guerrilla, wanted
for the hijacking of an Avianca flight in April 1999. Venezuela
admitted that it had captured and then released BaLLestas.
Following the negative publicity, he was then rearrested. |
| A Vnukovo Airlines flight, with 174 people on
board, was hijacked shortly after take off from Istanbul en
route to Moscow. The hijackers demanded an end to Russia's
military campaign in Chechnya. The aircraft diverted to Medina
in Saudi Arabia, although the hijackers requested the aircraft
fly to Qandahar, Afghanistan. Saudi forces eventually stormed
the aircraft. Three people were killed, including flight
attendant Yulia Fomina, a passenger and one of the three
hijackers. |
| A man was arrested for having made a bomb threat
against a Saudia flight en route from Riyadh to Amman. The
search of the aircraft, on its arrival at Queen Alia Airport,
revealed no explosives |
| 13 March 2001 |
SACREMENTO, CALIFORNIA
|
| An armed man managed to board an aircraft in the
Cessna Citation maintenance area of Sacremento Airport and
demanded to be flown to Washington. He was arrested once an
airport employee had persuaded the man to give himself up to the
police. |
| Two telephoned bomb warnings from someone
claiming to represent an Islamic extremist group resulted in a
Pakistan International Airways B747 being grounded at Manchester
following its arrival from Karachi via Lahore. The flight
eventually departed for New York following a search of the
aircraft and the luggage in the hold. |
| An airline steward was killed and seven crew and
ground staff were injured in a blaze resulting from a bomb blast
aboard a Thai Airways International aircraft at Bangkok's Don
Muang airport. The B-737-400 had been due to carry Prime
Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, his son and more than 140 other
passengers to the northern city of Chiang Mai. The blast reduced
the jet to a blackened metal hulk with a collapsed roof. Motives
included an assassination attempt, a rift between airline staff,
the disguised murder of another passenger and an attempt to
discredit the airline. |
| According to Expressen, the Swedish cabinet's
gender equality expert harassed airline hostesses and vomited in
the lap of his boss, Sweden's female equality minister, on a
flight to New York. |
| A Spirit Airlines flight was delayed when a
passenger on board the Washington-bound aircraft made a joke
about a bomb. |
| An Air India plane, flying from Mumbai, diverted
to a military base in Singapore after a bomb threat. |
| 27 February 2001 |
PRETORIA
|
| A gunman held nine people hostage on board a
light aircraft at Wonderboom Airport in Pretoria. |
| 26 February 2001 |
TENERIFE
|
| A man aboard an Iberworld Airbus A-320, en route
from Manchester to Tenerife, brandished a bible and told fellow
passengers they were about to meet their maker. Four men tackled
him to the ground and tied his hands and feet using belts. |
| A drunk Norwegian passenger aboard an Air Shuttle
flight struck a passenger and a flight attendant, en route from
Kristiansund to Bergen. The man had spent the time waiting at
the airport drinking half a bottle of vodka. He was friendly and
calm when he boarded the plane, but then drank another beer once
on board. |
| 20 February 2001 |
SAN FRANCISCO
|
| A man, wearing a Gatwick Airport ground crew
overall, was found dead in the wheel well of a US Airways
aircraft at San Francisco. The plane had flown to San Francisco
from Gatwick, via Pittsburgh. A man matching the stowaway's
description had been arrested at Gatwick the previous Sunday for
breaching airport security. |
| 19 February 2001 |
KUALA LUMPUR
|
| A Pakistani passenger stabbed a security guard,
before being shot and arrested. |
| 10 February 2001 |
CALCUTTA
|
| An official shot and killed two police officers
and injured three others before shooting himself in an attack of
rage at Calcutta Airport's immigration counter. |
| A 43-year old Toronto man was arrested and
charged with the alleged sexual assault of a flight attendant on
board a Sky service Flight en route to Acapulco, Mexico. The
incident took place on January 20th but Peel Police arrested the
man on his return from Acapulco. |
| A Nicaraguan priest, 34-year old Father William
Gonzalez, tried to break into the cockpit of a VASP Airlines
flight. He was restrained by other passengers and crew, yet died
in his seat from a heart attack. |
| A Saudi court has sentenced an army officer to 70
lashes for using his mobile phone on a domestic flight, despite
warnings from the crew. |
| Jaber Yehya Satar, who hijacked a Yemenia flight
on 23rd January, was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment. He had
threatened to blow up the plane unless it diverted to Baghdad,
but was overpowered by crew members after it landed in Djibouti.
The motive for the hijacking remains unclear, although the
hijacker said earlier that he was a supporter of Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein. Satar was quoted by the French AFP news agency
as saying that the sentence was "unjust" but that he
accepted it because he was expecting the death penalty. |
| UNITA rebels allegedly shot down an Antonov AN26,
killing all 22 people on board, as it was landing at Luena in
the eastern province of Mexico. |
| 1 February 2001 |
BANGOR, MAINE
|
| Chennelle Perrott, a 20-year old mother,
travelling with her 4-year old son and his grandfather, was
arrested when the Britannia Airways flight on which they were
flying from Orlando to London was diverted to Bangor. Perrott
allegedly assaulted a passenger who tried to quieten her
argument with the grandfather. |
| 31 January 2001 |
CAMP ZEIST
|
| In the verdict on the Lockerbie trial, one of the
accused was found guilty and sentenced to a minimum of twenty
years imprisonment in Scotland; the case against the other was
not proven and he returned to Libya. |
| 30 January 2001 |
SINGAPORE
|
| A 27 year old Indian man was found guilty of
having groped a woman on a Singapore Airlines flight in
September. He was sentenced to three strokes of the cane and a
year in jail. The woman covered herself with a blanket before
dozing off, but was awakened by Das's right hand resting on her
groin. She pushed his hand back thinking it was an accident,
only to be woken 30 minutes later when she felt his fingers
slipping into her underwear. |
| A SATENA aircraft was commandeered whilst on the
ground in the heart of the rebel-held demilitarized zone, and
the lone hijacker, armed with a 9mm pistol, demanded it fly to
Bogota. Family members of those on board attempted to run onto
the runway in front of the departing plane. Once in Bogota, the
hijacker demanded to speak with Amnesty International and to be
put on a flight to Europe. The pilot managed to overpower the
man and all 30 passengers and crew were released. |
| 27 January 2001 |
ABU DHABI
|
| Gulf Air crew members overpowered an Iraqi
national who had threatened to hijack the aircraft with a knife
in his hand. The incident took place three hours prior to
landing in Abu Dhabi, on a flight from Hong Kong via Bangkok.
The A340 landed as scheduled. |
| 23 January 2001 |
SANA'A YEMEN
|
| A Yemenia flight, on a domestic routing, was
hijacked by a man armed with a Pen-shaped pistol. He claimed to
be a supporter of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and threatened
to blow up the B-727 if it was not diverted to Baghdad. The
plane landed in Djibouti to refuel, and most of the passengers
were released. The crew members remaining on board eventually
overpowered the hijacker. The hijacker had been sitting in first
class and commandeered the plane 10 minutes after take off. A
bag, which the hijacker had claimed contained explosives, was
later found to be filled with toys. |
| 22 January 2001 |
PAPUA NEW GUINEA
|
| Four armed men boarded a shell oil tanker as it
was berthed on the island of Manus, Police, called to the scene,
struggled with the mend and fired warning shots, yet the
hijackers jumped over the side and escaped in a small dinghy |
| The trial began of the 12 Afghanis accused of
threatening to blow up an Ariana Afghan plane, that they had
hijacked to London in February 2000, unless they were granted
political asylum in Britain. The prosecution stated that the
defendants were opposed to Afghanistan's ruling Taliban movement
and deliberately sought international publicity. |
| 16 January 2001 |
SRINAGAR, KASHMIR
|
| Armed militants, wearing police uniforms, threw
grenades at the main entrance to Srinagar airport, prompting a
gun battle that resulted in 11 people being killed. The
Lashkar-e-Toyeba group issued a statement claiming
responsibility. |
| Two Polish women were arrested after a Condor
Airlines plane with 113 passengers on board was forced to land
in Malaga en route from Germany to the Canary islands, The two
women, under the influence of alcohol, had become angry, thrown
food tray's on the ground and started smoking in non-authorized
areas |
| A United Airlines flight, en route from Chicago
to Hong Kong, was diverted to Anchorage when a passenger
screamed obscenities at crew and passengers. The perpetrator was
subdued and handcuffed. |
| A small bomb exploded in the freight area of
Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport. The blast caused damage to the
building but no injuries. |
| A bomb exploded at Ninoy Aquino International
Airport, being one of five bombs to explode almost
simultaneously around Manila that together claimed 14 lives and
injured more than 100. |
| A British Airways B-747, en route to Nairobi from
London Gatwick, plunged 10,000 feet and almost span out of
control when a deranged Kenyan man entered the cockpit and
attempted to seize the flight controls. Jemima Khan and Bryan
Ferry were passengers on board the jet. The crew wrestled the
man to the ground and he was bound up for the remainder of the
flight. The man had been interviewed at Gatwick, where he was in
transit from Toulouse, at his own request. He was deemed safe to
fly. |
| A stewardess on a Go flight to Prague was, upon
arrival, punched in the stomach by a woman who was angry that
the flight had been delayed |
| Donald MacQuarrie, a Toronto drama professor, is
alleged to have been disruptive on baord an American Airlines
flight from Toronto to Dallas. The plane diverted to Detroit
when MacQuarrie, under the influence of alcohol, kicked the
pilot in the chest. He also threatened and bit the police
officers who had to remove him from the aircraft. |
| Alberto Vazquez, 17, and Maikel Fonseca, 16, hid
in a British Airways B-777's wheel well. They both died from
freezing temperatures and lack of oxygen, and their bodies were
later discovered in Britain, one in a Surrey field, after
falling out of the aircraft when the landing gear was lowered,
and the other at London's Gatwick airport. |
| 22 December 2000 |
CALCUTTA
|
| A bomb threat was levelled at an alliance Air
flight travelling from Calcutta via Aizawl, to Imphal |
| 21 December 2000 |
COLOMBIA
|
| A man, intending to fly to Panama, was arrested
in Rafael Nunez Airport with 2kg of heroin strapped to his body. |
| During documentation checks on board a Pakistan
International Airlines transiting in Dubai, en route from
Karachi to London, an Egyptian man realised he was causing the
security officers some concern. Taking a small knife he charged
into the cockpit and tried to hijack the flight to London. The
Dubai police overpowered the man, who was later found to be
carrying a fake Belgian passport. |
| 17 December 2000 |
NEW YORK
|
| An American Airlines flight was halfway to New
York from Los Angeles when odors drifted through the cabin,
causing the passengers and crew coughing fits and burning eyes.
Flight attendants traced the smell to carry-on luggage which
contained two bottles, one of them broken and leaking a
foul-smelling liquid. The other bottle contained an
amber-coloured liquid that the bag's owner claimed was whiskey;
a police test later determined it contained liquid cocaine. The
owner was arrested for possession of illegal narcotics on
arrival. |
| Yoshimi Tanaka pleaded guilty to the charge of
having hijacked a JAL flight to Pyongyang in 1970. Following the
hijacking, Tanaka, now aged 52, was granted political asylum in
North Korea. He was arrested near Cambodia's border with Vietnam
in 1996 and charged with using counterfeit US dollars at a Thai
beach resort. He was tried in Thailand and acquitted in 1999,
after which he was extradited to Japan to face the hijacking
charge. |
| 15 December 2000 |
PHNOM PENH
|
| An American, intending to travel to Bangkok, was
arrested for money trafficking. He was found to be carrying 6kgs
of money in his luggage |
| Police officers arrested gang members responsible
for extorting money from Indian nationals arriving from Calcutta
over the past few years. it is alleged that the perpetrators
were also bribing customs officials to turn a blind eye to the
act that earned them between $30k and $80k per week |
| 12 December 2000 |
LOS ANGELES
|
| A passenger, carrying a two-inch pocket knife,
boarded an American Airlines flight from Hawaii to Dallas, the
aircraft diverted to Los Angeles where the man tried escape from
the aircraft as it taxied to the terminal |
| 4 December 2000 |
BUJUMBURA, BURUNDI
|
| A Sabena flight was shot at by Burundian rebels
as was taxing on the runway, wounding two passengers. |
| Two hijackers were prevented from stealing an
Antonov jet on which they had threatened to detonate grenades.
One hijacker was killed, the other arrested. the incident
occurred after take off from Goma, in eastern Congo, for Kindu. |
| 23 NOVEMBER 2000 |
FORT LAUDERDALE
|
| A passenger was arrested after telling a Delta
Airlines skycap that she was carrying a bomb when asked if she
was carrying anything for anybody else. Daralyn Khan, aged 40,
was charged with making a false report of a bomb. |
| 22 NOVEMBER 2000 |
COLOMBIA
|
| The last two of the 41 hostages, who had been
seized in the hijacking of an Avianca flight on 12 April 1999,
were freed by the ELN. Abner Duarte, former president of
state-run natural gas company Ecogas, and fellow passenger
Gloria Amaya, were released following the payment of ransoms by
their families. |
| 21 NOVEMBER 2000 |
CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA
|
| The airport was closed for an hour and a half
after security guards noticed a suspicious item in a passenger's
luggage. The item turned out to be a toy. |
| A drunken Japanese passenger on a Seattle-bound
American Airlines jet locked himself in the toilet and refused
to quit smoking, forcing the plane to return to Tokyo soon after
takeoff. Allegedly, after receiving a reprimand by airport
police, he submitted a written apology saying he would
"never do it again," |
| 18 NOVEMBER 2000 |
AMSTERDAM
|
| A passenger gave an SAS flight attendant a note
demanding a ransom for each of the 64 passengers on board and
threatened the detonation of an IED. The plane made an emergency
landing in Amsterdam where the man was arrested. |
| 18 NOVEMBER 2000 |
FORT LAUDERDALE
|
| Rohan and Simone Simon were arrested after they
missed their Spirit Airlines flight to New York. Rohan Simon
apparently asked what would happen if his bag exploded, seeing
as it had been loaded onto the aircraft. This was deemed to be a
bomb threat and the aircraft was recalled and searched. |
| 17 NOVEMBER 2000 |
HO CHI MINH CITY
|
| A man took flying lessons from a Thai flying
school. One aloft, he forced the pilot to fly to Ho Chi Minh
City, where he dropped anti-communist propagander |
| 17 NOVEMBER 2000 |
EAST LONDON, SOUTH AFRICA
|
| 18 approach lights and 104m of cable were stolen
from East London airport. Kalawe, the Regional Manager for the
Airports Company of South Africa, said the lights had been
stolen from the southern end of the runway after the last
security patrol at 5.40pm. He said he was considering an
electric fence together with a security camera as possible
measures to prevent further thefts. |
| 15 NOVEMBER 2000 |
NEW YORK
|
| A man aboard an American Airlines flight,
realising that he still had a handgun on his person, surrendered
the weapon to crew whilst en route from New York to the
Dominican Republic. The plane diverted to Miami. |
| 13 NOVEMBER 2000 |
BANDAR ABBAS, IRAN
|
| 23 members of four Iranian families tried to
hijack an Ariatour plane after take off from Ahvaz for a
domestic flight to Bandar Abbas. They demanded to be flown to
the United States, but sky marshals overpowered them and the air
craft landed at Bandar Abbas in any case. Once the pilots had
escaped from the cockpit, the hijackers abandoned their bid and
surrendered to ground security staff. Seven people were injured
in the incident. |
| 11 NOVEMBER 2000 |
OVDA, ISRAEL
|
| A Vnukovo Airlines Tu-154 aircraft was hijacked
on a domestic flight from Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan,
to Moscow. 27 year old Akhmed Amirkhanov, wearing a
blood?pressure gauge with the ear pieces stuck in his ears,
entered the cockpit claiming that the device was a bomb. The
aircraft refuelled in Baku, Azerbaijan and then continued to
Ovda in Israel, having been denied permission to land in Tel
Aviv. All passengers and crew were released unharmed, including
the Dagestani Finance Minister and two officers of the Federal
Security Service. A Russian embassy official said that the
hijacker gave Israeli officials a video tape and letters
addressed to the "white world" and to the
"emperor of Japan" and complained of "yellow
people trying to take over the white race". Four pistols
and an automatic rifle were found on board the aircraft, but
apparently they belonged to the crew and security staff.
Amirkhanov was returned to Russia once Israeli officials had
been assured he would not receive the death penalty. |
| 9 NOVEMBER 2000 |
VIENTIANE, LAOS
|
| A bomb, hidden in a bag strapped to a bicycle
near the entrance to Wattai Airport's domestic terminal,
exploded at 9.45 a.m., killing three people. The incident took
place two days before Chinese President Jiang Zemin was to visit
Laos. In July, bombs were found in the airport and outside the
Vietnamese embassy, and seven people were injured in an
explosion outside Vientiane's main post office. The government
has blamed the attacks on anti-government |
| 8 NOVEMBER 2000 |
COPENHAGEN
|
| An SAS jet forced to make an emergency landin
when a passenger found a bomb threat note on board the flight
from Aalborg |
| A Deutsche BA flight returned to Munich when the
pilot could not retract the landing gear. A Romanian stowaway
was hiding in the wheel well. |
| Fusako Shigenobu, the 55 year old leader of the
Japanese Red Army, was arrested in Takatsuki, near Osaka after
over 30 years on the run. The JRA is responsible for the 1970
hijacking of a Japan Airlines B?747 to Pyongyang in 1970 and the
1972 machine gun and grenade attack on passengers arriving off
an Air France flight at Israel's Lod Airport, which left 26 dead
and 78 injured. It had been thought that Shigenobu was in hiding
in Lebanon. |
| 3 NOVEMBER 2000 |
SAN FRANCISCO
|
| Police arrested a passenger aboard a KLM flight
who had allegedly bitten a flight attendant five hours into its
flight from Amsterdam. The man was restrained in his seat for
the remainder of the flight. |
| 2 NOVEMBER 2000 |
PAPUA NEW GUINEA
|
| A North Coast Aviation Cessna was hijacked by
gunmen en route to Port Moresby. The plane was diverted to
Garaina where the men escaped with a shipment of gold. |
| Gunmen stole five cases of diamonds as they were
being loaded onto a Lufthansa jet?they then escaped. |
| Two Royal Jordanian flights were forced to land
following the receipt of bomb threats, one en route to Abu
Dhabi, the other en route to Qatar. |
| Canadian Police arrest a third suspect in
connection with the bombing of Air India Flight 182 in 1985. The
suspect is believed to have bought air tickets in Vancouver that
allowed two bomb?laden suitcases to pass through airport
security. No passengers boarded with the tickets. All the
suspects are charged with first degree murder, conspiracy to
commit murder, conspiring to cause bombs to be put on aircraft
and causing a bomb to be placed on an aircraft. They are also
charged with the deaths of two baggage handlers killed in Tokyo
on the same day when a second bomb, intended for another Air
India flight, exploded prematurely. |
| 18 OCTOBER 2000 |
FRANKFURT
|
| El AI offices were evacuated after the airline
had received a bomb threat by an individual who claimed to
belong to the PLO. |
| 17 OCTOBER 2000 |
MYRTLE BEACH, SOUTH CAROLINA
|
| A passenger was arrested as a result of his
making a bomb threat aboard a Spirit Air flight from West Palm
Beach to Atlantic City. The aircraft diverted to Myrtle Beach;
no device was found. |
| A Saudia flight en route to London Heathrow from
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia was hijacked to Baghdad, Iraq. 105
passengers and crew were released safely four hours after the
aircraft landed. Saudi Arabia called on Iraq to extradite the
two hijackers, but their request was denied and asylum was
granted. The hijackers, carrying guns and claiming to be
carrying explosives, bypassed security checks in Jeddah as one
of them was employed as a security guard at the airport. Many of
the passengers were unaware that they had been hijacked until
the plane was on the ground in Iraq. |
| 9 OCTOBER 2000 |
LUXEMBOURG
|
| Two police officers and two civilians were
injured during a shooting incident at Luxembourg Airport as
robbers attempted to steal money being loaded onto a Crossair
jet. Two of the gunmen were also injured. |
| An Air Tanzania flight was evacuated and searched
following the receipt of a bomb threat before its departure from
the Ugandan capital to Dar-es-Salaam. |
| A Jet Airways flight ready to depart Coimbatore
for Bombay was evacuated and searched following a crew member's
discovery of a bomb threat message. |
| Of the 16 passengers aboard Northwest Flight 5852
from Memphis to Owensboro, ten were detained by police after the
pilot and flight attendant claimed that the group had been
unruly during the trip. The group were alleged to have been
throwing things at the flight attendant, Cindy Salsbery, calling
her names and shouting obscenities, because they were upset
about the lack of air conditioning and drinks being served, and
that they had not been allowed to use the restrooms. |
| 29 SEPTEMBER 2000 |
MALAYSIA
|
| Two Pakistanis attempted to stowaway in the
undercarriage of a Lufthansa cargo plane. Their bodies were
found in Frankfurt, although the aircraft had stopped en route
in the UAE. |
| Mohammad Yassin Al-Humeidi, a 38-year old Iraqi,
hijacked a Royal Jordanian flight from Sana'a, Yemen to Amman.
AI-Humeidi had worked for several months in Jordan until he was
asked to leave a month before the hijack because he had violated
his residency permit by overstaying and working in the kingdom. |
| 27 SEPTEMBER 2000 |
JINAN, CHINA
|
| Sky marshals aboard a Xinhua Airlines B-737,
carrying 143 passengers, over powered a hijacker on a domestic
flight from Baotou, in China's Inner Mongolian region, to
Beijing. The plane landed in Jinan. One hijacker was stabbed,
using the hijacker's dagger, and died from his injuries, whilst
another was arrested. The pilot was hospitalised. |
| Iranian radio reported an attempt to hijack an
Iranian plane en route from the southern city of Shiraz to the
central city of Isfahan. Security police on board the aircraft
arrested the hijacker. |
| Afghanistan's ruling Taliban movement publicly
executed two men accused of working with opposition forces and
carrying out bomb attacks in the capital Kabul, including
missile attacks on Kabul airport. |
| An Antonov AN-2 crashed into the sea west of
Cuba. Cuban authorities said the plane was hijacked after
take-off from Pinar del Rio. |
| 16 SEPTEMBER 2000 |
SOLOMON ISLANDS
|
| A faction of the separatist Isatabu Freedom
Movement seized a light aircraft and demanded a ransom of
$200,000 for the release of the aircraft and its Pilot. The
plane was hijacked after it landed at Babanakira, about 35
minutes' flight from Henderson Field, the Solomons'
international airport. |
| 14 SEPTEMBER 2000 |
DOHA, QATAR
|
| A Qatar Airways A300, en route from Doha to Amman
and carrying 133 passengers and 11 crew, was hijacked by an
Iraqi wielding a sharp object and diverted to Saudi Arabia,
where the hijacker surrendered after 90 minutes of negotiations.
The Qatar News Agency said that Adel Fahd Jahid was being
deported for illegally entering Qatar when he commandeered the
plane. |
| 13 SEPTEMBER 2000 |
NEW YORK
|
| Before take-off from JFK, Pakistan International
Airlines flight 722 carrying Pakistan's military ruler Gen.
Pervez Musharraf, was searched as per standard procedure. New
York police then received an emergency call saying there were
three bombs on the plane. According to authorities, since the
plane had already been searched, the pilot decided to take-off.
The plane got as far as Boston before the pilot reconsidered and
returned to JFK. |
The ELN freed a Colombian congressman whom they
had kidnapped in the
hijacking of an Avianca flight on April 12th 1999. Juan Manuel
Corzo was handed over to the Red Cross in mountains near the
north-eastern town of San Pablo, leaving three of the 41
passengers and crew still in ELN hands. |
| 8 SEPTEMBER 2000 |
COLOMBIA
|
| A Colombian domestic flight, carrying 22
passengers from Neiva to Florencia, was hijacked when a man
forced the pilot at gunpoint to divert the plane to the
government-granted safe haven of the Revolutionary Armed Forces
of Colombia (FARC) in the west of the country. The hijacker then
got off, yet the plane and its passengers were released. |
| 7 SEPTEMBER 2000 |
GUANGZHOU
|
Two men, purportedly drunk, provoked a hijack
scare on board a China
Southern Airlines flight from Shanghai to Guangzhou when one of
the men
told a steward that the man sitting beside him was hijacking the
plane. Armed police rushed aboard the B?777 when it landed and
took the pair into custody. |
| An Emirates Airlines flight to Dubai was delayed
at Zia International Airport. A hoax call to the US Embassy in
Dhaka indicated that the flight would be hijacked. All the
passengers and their luggage were searched, but no firearms or
explosives were found. A US-passport holder, Ismail Hossain,
refused to board the flight. |
| 4 SEPTEMBER 2000 |
FRANKFURT
|
| North Korea claimed that U.S. officials had
subjected its delegation to the U.N. Millennium Summits to a
strip search and examined their baggage before they boarded an
American Airlines flight in Frankfurt. U.S. officials denied
that strip searches had taken place, and said that staff had
followed normal security procedures. North Korea then boycotted
the summit. The White House later apologised for the
misunderstanding. |
| Passengers surrounded a Cyprus Airways plane at
Athens airport to stop it taking off, delaying its scheduled
midnight departure to 0500. Paphos-bound passengers became angry
when they were told that a technical problem, which had already
delayed the flight two hours, meant the plane would cancel a
scheduled stop at Paphos and fly only to Larnaca, its final
destination. |
| 21 AUGUST 2000 |
MARTHA'S VINEYARD
|
| A bag suspected of being filled with explosive
materials was left on the tarmac of Martha's Vineyard Airport.
Police authorities evacuated the airport before discovering it
to be an airline's test kit used to examine airport security. |
| 20 AUGUST 2000 |
LINCOLN, NEBRASKA
|
| A UA flight, en route to Newark from San
Francisco, diverted to Lincoln when a passenger carrying a
multi-tool object with a blade had become aggressive. |
| 18 AUGUST 2000 |
SAN FRANCISCO
|
| Peter Budavari, a 34-year old Hungarian, was
taken into custody following the arrival of an Air France flight
from Paris. He had allegedly punched a flight attendant after
the crew refused to serve him more drinks. |
| 8 heavily armed men commandeered a VASP B-737 as
it left Foz de Iguacu, on the border with Paraguay. On board
were 66 tourists from the USA, Italy and China. The hijackers
boarded as normal travellers, leading police to suspect
complicity by airport employees in smuggling the weapons on
board. The hijackers forced the plane to land at a hidden forest
runway in the northern forests of Parana, where they who stole
$2.76?million (about R19-million) from the cargo hold and fled
using a waiting cross-country vehicle. |
| A passenger found a bomb threat written on an air
sickness bag on board an America West Airlines flight about to
leave Seattle for Phoenix. Authorities searched the aircraft,
yet found nothing suspicious. |
| 11 AUGUST 2000 |
SALT LAKE CITY
|
| After going berserk (kicking and breaking the
cockpit door) on a Southwest flight from Las Vegas, Jonathan
Burton was physically restrained by passengers. Burton broke
free and exploded again, jumping up, spitting and punching
wildly. He was again subdued but was suffocated by the
passengers who did so and pronounced dead on arrival at a Salt
Lake City hospital. |
| Authorities evacuated a luggage holding area at
Vnukovo Airport after discovering a bag suspected of containing
explosives. An analyser indicated that the bag contained some
explosives, but it was later determined to be a false alarm. |
| 9 AUGUST 2000 |
NEW ORLEANS
|
| A man bypassed security and disappeared at
Concourse D. Approximately 400 people were evacuated from the
concourse and 3 Delta Airlines aircraft were searched. Neither
the man nor any suspicious objects were found. |
| An opposition party official armed with a
grenade, tried to hijack an aircraft to Ankara in Turkey. The
hijacker was said to have demanded a postponement of forthcoming
elections. According to an Azeri news agency he was overpowered
by crew members and an employee of the Azerbaijan National
Security Ministry, who was among the 118 passengers on board. |
| 4 AUGUST 2000 |
ASUNCION, PARAGUAY
|
| Uniformed gunmen stole more than US$11 million
being loaded onto a TAM Airlines aircraft. They then escaped. |
| 3 AUGUST 2000 |
LOS ANGELES
|
| A man was removed from the wheel well of an Air
France B?747 shortly after it landed. He was hospitalised with
severe hypothermia. The flight had originated in Papeete, on the
island of Tahiti in French Polynesia. |
| 1 AUGUST 2000 |
WAMENA, IRIAN JAYA
|
| Armed with bows, arrows and clubs, approximately
100 pro-independence Papuans took over security at the airport.
The group acted after receiving word that refugees from the
Maluku islands were to arrive. |
| A Myanmar man seized an airport employee in the
cargo area at Chek Lap Kok having entered the area by
threatening personnel at a staff screening entrance with a fake
gun. He then boarded a Cathay Pacific B?747, where an engineer
was servicing the aircraft. The engineer locked himself in the
cockpit, whilst the assailant threatened to kill his hostage. He
eventually surrendered to police. |
| A US citizen arriving on a BA flight from London
was arrested at Bishkek for allegedly carrying 45 rounds of
automatic pistol ammunition in his luggage. |
| At 2200hrs a man of Argentinean descent,
brandishing a 9mm handgun, ran through a security checkpoint at
JFK straight onto a Las Vegas-bound National Airlines B-757. A
US Marine on board the plane managed to shut the gunman in the
cockpit, with the Captain and co-pilot, allowing the 143
passengers and the cabin crew to flee the plane. The man
demanded to speak with a representative of the Argentine
consulate and to be flown to Antarctica! The gunman released the
pilot shortly after midnight and then released the co-pilot
about 0100. He surrendered without incident about three hours
later. |
| Security was increased at Manila's Ninoy Aquino
International Airport following four bomb threats by unknown
callers, who threatened to blow up a Boeing 747 in mid flight.
As a result, the cargo on a Northwest B-747 and the cargo and
luggage on a Japan Airlines flight was re-inspected and
submitted to more rigorous checks. |
| An Air France Concorde crashed on take-off at
Charles De Gaulle airport at Paris, France at 1644hrs. The
aircraft crashed approximately 5 miles from the airport at
Gonesse killing all 109 on board and five people on the ground. |
| An Indian Airlines Airbus was unloaded and the
cargo, passengers and luggage inspected when air traffic
controllers at Raipur Airport received a bomb threat. After a 2
hour 40 minute delay, officials determined it was a hoax. |
| A man was found in the cockpit of an Air New
Zealand plane by company staff. The man allegedly entered the
restricted area at Sydney International Airport and gained
access to the plane. The incident is being investigated. |
| A bomb exploded outside the international
departures lounge at Cape Town's airport. The bomb which was
placed inside a trash can, caused little damage and no one was
injured. No one has claimed responsibility for the incident. |
| A Sky service flight was diverted to Shannon
Airport because of unruly behavior by Daniele Patanella, aged 34
from Canada, and Luca Giovanni Pagliari, a 20 year old Italian. |
17 JULY 2000
|
PATNA, INDIA
|
| As Alliance Air Flight 7412 approached Patna,
arriving from Calcutta, the aircraft exploded. Eyewitnesses said
they saw the aircraft wobble in the sky at a very low altitude
for some time before its left wing was torn off after hitting a
tree. The plane then grazed a few single-storied houses in a
government residential housing estate at Aneeshabad and exploded
into a ball of fire. The aircraft broke into four pieces. |
17 JULY 2000
|
LONDON GATWICK
|
| A man brandishing a pair of scissors grabbed a
stewardess and threatened to blow up a British Airways flight en
route to Gatwick from Zurich if he were not granted political
asylum on arrival. When the flight landed, 30 armed police
boarded the flight, which was carrying 95 passengers and five
crew, and persuaded the man to give himself up. |
| A fight ensued between two drunk Palestinians on
board an Air Ukraine flight from Kiev to Cairo. When the plane
landed in Egypt, they were arrested by police officers. |
| An America West flight diverted to Tuscon when
one of its own pilots, dead heading from Phoenix to Austin
became unruly. 51 year old Brantly G. Meyers was arrested on
suspicion of disorderly conduct and was sent for psychological
examination. Meyers had reportedly been experiencing marital
problems and had recently lost a friend who committed suicide. |
| An Austrian Airlines flight scheduled to fly to
Teheran was evacuated and searched after receiving an anonymous
bomb threat call just before take off. No devices were found. |
| A Varig B-767 en route from Lisbon to Sao Paulo
was forced to make an emergency landing at Gando Airport in Las
Palmas after receiving a bomb scare. All 164 passengers were
evacuated and the plane was searched by Spanish police. No
explosive devices were found. |
10 JULY 2000
|
SAUDI ARABIA
|
| A flight attendant on board a Saudi Arabian B-777
from Jeddah to Cairo found a note in the bathroom warning that
there was a bomb on board. The plane made an emergency landing
at Cairo International Airport and passengers were asked to
identify their baggage. Nothing suspicious was found. |
| A Syrian man attempted to hijack a Royal
Jordanian flight to Cairo using a gun and a hand grenade, which
was concealed inside a large portable cassette recorder. The
recorder was carried onto the plane by the man's daughter. When
security officials at Queen Alia Airport attempted to search the
recorder, he convinced them not to do so by claiming that it was
fragile. |
10 JULY 2000
|
SAN FRANCISCO
|
| An X-ray screener, checking passenger luggage at
San Francisco International Airport, spotted a handgun yet
allowed the passenger to proceed. He later notified police
officials and the relevant boarding area was evacuated of
approximately 800 people and then searched. Both a Delta and a
Northwest flight were delayed for about 90 minutes but the
passenger was not located. It is still not known what
consequences the guard will face. |
| A bomb threat was made against a Pro Air flight
from New York La Guardia to Detroit Metropolitan Airport. Upon
arrival in Detroit, officials searched the aircraft but nothing
was found. |
| A Syrian man, named as Mahmoud Rizk Deeb, tried
to commandeer a Royal Jordanian Airlines flight shortly after
take off from Amman for Damascus. Frustrated at failing to enter
the cockpit, he managed to throw a grenade injuring 15
passengers before sky marshals shot him. The plane returned
safety to Amman after the incident. Three of the 96 passengers
were wounded by shrapnel, two of whom needed emergency surgery.
The 12 other casualties suffered minor injuries. It is believed
that Deed, who was travelling with his brother and two children,
had wanted to hijack the plane to Germany and claim asylum.
Royal Jordanian president Nader Zahabi said the explosion
"opened a hole in the floor of the plane but luckily the
shock was absorbed by the cargo that lay beneath the
aisle." "We averted a disaster. We could have lost the
plane because the explosion destroyed a lot of cables that
control the stabiliser, making it very difficult for the pilot
to land the plane," Mr Zahabi said. |
| A Continental Airlines flight, en route to
Seattle, returned to Anchorage when Norma Linda Lozano, aged 38,
began arguing with her boyfriend and became unruly when a flight
attendant asked her to calm down. She threw a full can of beer
she'd brought aboard the aircraft, hitting the flight attendant
and splashing beer on passengers, including a 3?month?old baby.
Another flight attendant and several passengers intervened. The
first officer was alerted to the problem and left the cockpit to
help. When he tried to restrain Lozano, she bit him on the
wrist. |
| An Israeli man tried to board an American
Airlines plane destined for the United States at Jorge Chavez
International Airport with two sticks of dynamite in his
luggage. After being arrested, the man claimed that he was on
his way to Tel Aviv and intended to give the dynamite away to
friends. |
| Three Panamanians and one Colombian were arrested
after unsuccessfully trying to steal a helicopter from Panama
City's Albrook airport. They attempted to charter the helicopter
using false Venezuelan passports. |
16 JUNE 2000
|
CHARLOTTE, N. CAROLINA
|
| John Francis Loftus III, aged 42, was sentenced
to four years and three months in prison for assaulting a US
Airways flight attendant on 10 February. Loftus had boarded US
Airways Flight 885 in Pittsburgh bound for Miami. About 30
minutes into the flight, he became belligerent, pushing a flight
attendant and grabbing two passengers by the throat. He then
tried to open the door of the jet, yet passengers wrestled him
to the floor. |
| Ten armed men burst into Sao Paolo's city airport
at 0800, overpowered security guards and walked out onto the
apron. They surrounded a small plane about to take off for the
town of Aracatuba and offloaded sacks containing 3 million Reals
($1.7m), before escaping from the airport. The only injury was
to a passenger on another plane, who was grazed by a bullet. |
| As an Air Canada B-737 was preparing for take off
for Toronto, a passenger noticed a 'bomb on board' message
written on an in-flight magazine. The aircraft was evacuated and
searched by authorities. After nothing suspicious was revealed
the flight was allowed to proceed. |
| After a Premiair Airbus?A330 landed at Arlanda
International Airport, two stowaways from the Dominican Republic
were found dead in the wheel well. |
29 MAY 2000
|
PAPUA NEW GUINEA
|
| A light aircraft was hijacked by three men en
route to Batiri from Erave. The hijackers ordered the pilot to
land on an.airstrip, having ripped out the plane's
communication equipment. They escaped with US$650 in cash. |
| A jilted husband, Augusto Lacandula, hijacked a
Philippine Airlines Airbus, flight 812 from Davao to Manila.
He demanded the passengers place their valuables in a bag and
then, D.B.Cooper-style, commanded the pilot to descend and
depressurise the aircraft so that he could escape by
parachute. The parachute was homemade - made of nylon with a
curtain sash for a ripcord. At the last moment Lacandula
panicked and clung to the rear door afraid to jump. A male
flight attendant pushed him out of the plane. His body was
found the next day. |
| A court ruled that Yoshimi Tanaka, a 51 year
old former member of the Japanese Red Army, is to be
extradited to Japan to face charges of hijacking a Japan
Airlines plane to Pyongyang in 1970. He insists charges
against him are politically motivated and that he hijacked the
plane to avoid arrest in Japan. |
| A terminal at Logan was evacuated following an
incident in which a man ran through a security checkpoint and
not subsequently found by security staff. |
| A Syrian Arab Airlines Airbus A320 was
evacuated following the receipt of an anonymous bomb threat.
No device was found. |
| A 26 year old woman was arrested when the
Airtours International flight she was on, from Oriando, landed
at Manchester. She is alleged to have headbutted a stewardess
when asked to stop smoking. |
| A reward of one million Rupees ($24,000) was
offered by lndia's Central Bureau of Investigation for
information concerning the five suspected hijackers of an
Indian Airlines plane at the end of last year. The five
hijackers are alleged to be: lbrahim Ather, Sunny Ahmed Qazi,
Shakir, Shahid Akhther Sayed and Mistri Zahur lbrahim. |
| Three Mexicans were arrested on suspicion of
hijacking a helicopter a week earlier. It is believed the
helicopter was to be used to collect cocaine from Colombia and
that mechanical problems forced it to land in Nicaragua. One
of those captured hanged himself in prison. |
| A Continental Micronesia plane en route to
Hawaii returned to Guam when a passenger became unruly,
kicking doors and throwing pillows around the cabin. |
16 MAY 2000
|
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA
|
| Geraid Howard pleaded guilty to charges of the
assault of a seven-year-old girl aboard a Northwest Airlines
flight between Birmingham and New Jersey on May 14th 1999. He
was sentenced to six months in prison, fined US$5000 with
interest and US$400 in restitution to the giri's parents. |
| A United Airlines B-777 en route to London from
Newark diverted to Bangor when Driss Ghandi, a 38 year old
Moroccan, allegedly assaulted passengers and flight
attendants. |
| A Cyprus Airways jet en route from London to
larnaca diverted to Athens when a 35 year old passenger
refused to stop smoking and started groping the flight
attendants and making suggestive comments. |
| Shaaban Ali, a 34 year old Egyptian decorator,
tried to hijack EgyptAir Flight 233 from Aswan to Cairo by
claiming a jar of hair gel was a bomb. The cockpit door was
locked and he was overpowered by cabin crew and turned over to
police. 19 people were on board. |
10 MAY 2000
|
SOLOMON ISLANDS
|
| Henderson Field international Airport was
placed under 24-hour police surveillance following fighting
between rival ethnic groups near the airport. In the preceding
week three people had died in clashes between the lsatabu
Freedom Movement and the Malaita Eagles Force. |
| A family drove onto an U.S. Air Force base and
succeeded in boarding a C-9 cargo plane, hoping to be
transported as stowaways to the States. |
| Gunmen took over Beledweyne airport in an
attempt to gain employment! During their sit-in they prevented
a jet from Djibouti from landing. |
| 38 passengers from the Afghan jet hijacked to
Stanstead, in February, appealed the Home Secretary's decision
to deny them asylum in Britain. 14 Afghan men stand charged
with the hijacking. |
| A terminal was closed for four hours after a
security officer asked a man to open his bag for a physical
search following the identification of an item that looked
like a handgun on the X-ray machine. When, following the
search, nothing was found that remotely resembled a threat
item, it was thought that perhaps the wrong bag had been
pulled for search and the handgun had been taken into the
sterile zone. |
| Ali, a British Airways flight attendant,
appeared before a court in Germany charged with making a bomb
threat on board a flight to Hong Kong in September 1999. The
B-747 was diverted to Berlin when a passenger found a note
stating there was a bomb on board. |
24 APRIL 2000
|
PORTLAND, OREGON
|
| At Portland International Airport, shortly
before an Alaska Airlines B-737 was due to take off, a handgun
discharged in the baggage compartment. No one was injured, but
the female owner was found to have a second weapon in her
checked luggage. |
| It was announced that the FAA reauthorization
bill, signed by President Clinton earlier in the month,
increases maximum fines for disruptive passengers from $1,100
to $25,000 per incident. |
| Heathrow's Terminal 4 was closed for 20 minutes
whilst bomb disposal experts dealt with a suspect unattended
bag. |
| A Sri Lankan Airlines flight was delayed for
over four hours due to two security incidents - an anonymous
call warning that the aircraft would be hijacked, and, at
around the same time, the airport undergoing a security alert
that necessitated the Sri Lankan jet being searched. |
19 APRIL 2000
|
PHILADELPHIA
|
| It was discovered that 14 people hired by a
contract security company to perform screener duties at
Philadelphia Airport had been previously convicted of felonies
including aggravated assault, robbery, theft and firearms
violations. The company employs 1,300 staff at the airport and
has been fined $1.2 million in fines and costs. |
| Five crew members and three passengers from the
aircraft hijacked by ELN, on April 12th 1999, were handed over
to Red Cross officials. It is believed the ELN are holding six
more people. |
| Prior to take off from Manila for Zamboanga, a
Philippine Airlines flight received a bomb threat. Passengers
were disembarked and the aircraft was searched. No explosive
devices were found. |
13 APRIL 2000
|
LOS ANGELES
|
| Police refused to release a video of Rhode
Island Democrat Representative Patrick Kennedy's alleged March
26th confrontation with Delia Patton, a Los Angeles airport
security guard. |
| The National Transportation Safety Board has
recommended that all planes have cockpit video recorders and
that the power switches for them and for the voice and data
recorders are moved out of reach of the crew. The board voted
unanimously to recommend to the FAA that recorders holding two
hours of video be a prerequisite on all new planes as of 2003
and be retrofitted onto older planes by 2005, |
| A Huey UH-1H police helicopter was shot down by
FARC rebels in Valle del Cauca. Three of the seven people
aboard the aircraft died when the helicopter hit the ground.
It is thought that the FARC rebels seized the four survivors. |
3 APRIL 2000
|
NORFOLK, USA
|
| A loaded gun was found by a passenger in a
bathroom sink on board a Delta Express B-737 en route from
lslip, New York to Oriando, Florida. The flight was diverted
to Norfolk. All 52 passengers were disembarked and interviewed
by the F.B.1. No other weapons were found. |
| Nawaz Sharif was sentenced to life imprisonment
and to forfeit all his personal property for having issued
orders to refuse landing permission to a Karachi-bound airliner
in October 1999. He had been expected to be convicted of
hijacking and to have been given the death penalty. |
| Roy Santamaria, aged 31, was sentenced to three
years in prison for endangering the safety of an aircraft in
November. The incident in question occurred on an Ansett flight
from Melbourne to Perth when he refused to fasten his seat belt
during turbulence, used obscene language, and threatened both to
open the door of the aircraft and to kill a flight attendant. He
had previously received a suspended prison sentence for a
similar incident aboard a Qantas flight in 1997. |
3 APRIL 2000
|
NORFOLK, VIRGINIA
|
| A Delta Express flight en route to Oriando from
lslip, New York was diverted to Norfolk when a passenger
discovered a loaded gun in a bathroom sink. |
| A bomb was discovered inside a box left on a
windowsill at Sheremetyevo-1 airport. The bomb consisted of a
grenade contained in a jar with acid and approx 0.5kg of
dynamite |
| The pilot of a LTU charter flight, en route to
Berlin from the Canary Islands, was attacked by a German
citizen. The assailant was arrested when the flight landed;
excess alcohol appeared to trigger his aggressive behaviour. |
| The wreckage of a twin-engine aircraft, which
disappeared on 17th March, was found on a mountain near Puerto
Obaladia. Authorities initially suspected that Colombian rebels
might have hijacked the aircraft. |
| A soldier was arrested for hijacking a tourist
boat on a waterway between Phnom Penh and Angkor Wat. The
tourists were bound up, blindfolded and then robbed. |
20 MARCH 2000
|
ALBUQUERQUE
|
| The co-pilot of an America West flight, en route
to Phoenix from New York, was attacked by a woman, Denise
Laverne Brown, who barged into the cockpit. Brown, seemingly
under the influence of alcohol, was arrested when the plane
diverted to Albuquerque. |
| Columbia ELN rebels have released a male
passenger from the Avianca Airline hijacked on 12th April 1999.
They still hold two dozen passengers from that flight hostage. |
| A British woman was arrested and accused of
trying to smuggle more than six pounds of heroin out of the
country, whilst three Turkish citizens were arrested accused of
providing the heroin. |
16 MARCH 2000
|
SAN FRANCISCO
|
| A 40 year man, Peter Bradley Jnr., allegedly
broke into the cockpit of an Alaska Airlines flight from Mexico
to San Francisco, attacked the co-pilot and attempted to meddle
with the aircraft controls. The co-pilot was injured and
required eight stitches on one hand. |
| An Alaska Airlines flight returned to Seattle
when a flight attendant found a device that looked like a bomb
in a child's backpack. The boy was carrying a bag that looked
exactly like a bag used by Huntleigh Security as an X^ray test
item; the child's grandmother picked up the wrong bag at the
security checkpoint and it was only when the child asked the
flight attendant for some crayons from the bag that the dummy
bomb was discovered. On landing the aircraft was evacuated using
the emergency chutes. |
| Transbrasil Airlines was the target of a
well-orchestrated robbery by four heavily armed men, who arrived
in two vehicles at the cargo terminal, overpowered two guards
and intercepted an armoured car carrying 100kg of food vouchers
meant for Transbrasil employees. |
11 MARCH 2000
|
TIRANA, ALBANIA
|
| Following discoveries that corrupt officials had
been allowing Albanian citizens to leave the country with forged
documents in return for bribes, a number of arrests have taken
place among immigration officials at Tirana's Rinas
International Airport. |
| The body of a man found dead near a hospital in
Long Beach is thought to have fallen from a jetliner, en route
from the Dominican Republic to New York's Kennedy Airport.
Police believe he may have hidden in the landing gear and fallen
out as it was lowered for landing. |
| Sheremetyevo-1 airport was closed for two hours
following the crash of a Yak40 which had just taken off for
Kiev. All five passengers, including the president of Russian
oil company and a well-known journalist, were killed along with
the four-crew members. Criminal intent was mooted as a possible
cause. |
2 MARCH 2000
|
KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE
|
| A German passenger, Joachim Peter Franke aged 35,
caused a Delta Airlines flight to make an emergency landing in
Knoxville and was later charged with interfering with both
flight and cabin crew members. |
| Tareq Kakish was charged with assaulting two
Spirit Airlines crew members and forcing an unscheduled stop in
Denver |
| A car chase between police and a heavily armed
gang ended at Viracopos International Airport with a shootout in
which at least two gang members died and a third was injured. |
| Two airport terminals were evacuated when a woman
by-passed a security checkpoint claiming she thought she would
be separated from her travelling companion and miss her flight. |
17 FEBRUARY 2000
|
ANCHORAGE, ALASKA
|
| A Hong Kong pop star, Ronald Cheng, became so
uncontrollable on an Eva Airlines flight from Los Angeles to
Taipei that the B-747 had to divert to Anchorage. Cheng, who had
lit cigarettes, sang loudly, laid down on the floor, screamed
obscenities, grabbed one passenger and held a crew member in a
headlock, was eventually subdued when the aircraft's Captain
allegedly hit him over the head with a flashlight. |
17 FEBRUARY 2000
|
SAN JOSE, COSTA RICA
|
| A COPA airlines flight en-route to Panama with
150 passengers on board returned to San Jose fifteen minutes
after takeoff when airport officials received a bomb threat |
| An Alaska Airlines jet was evacuated twenty
minutes prior to take-off due to a hoax bomb threat |
14 FEBRUARY 2000
|
BANGLADESH
|
| Biman Bangladesh Airlines have dismissed three
captains over an alleged plot to hijack a London bound flight,
in order to procure the release of convicted killers of
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of
Bangladesh. |
6 FEBRUARY 2000
|
KABUL & LONDON STANSTED
|
| An Ariana Afghan B-727 was hijacked soon after
its departure to the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif. The plane
landed in Taskent, then Aktyubinsk and Moscow, where nine
passengers were released. The hijackers then forced the crew to
fly to London where the remaining hostages were released some
three days later. The motive appeared to be asylum. |
5 FEBRUARY 2000
|
INDONESIA
|
| Malikussaleh Airport was destroyed by a fire,
started by five rebels in military fatigues. |
3 FEBRUARY 2000
|
PHILIPPINES
|
| A Silk Air jet carrying 99 passengers and eight
crew made an emergency landing at Cebu Airport due to a bomb
threat |
| An Iranian man was arrested at Larnaca airport
carrying 4 kgs of heroin sewn into Persian carpets. |
| A European citizen carrying more than 2 kg of
heroin was arrested by police whilst transiting through Dubai. |
| A Saudi Arabian Airlines flight was delayed on
take-off from Cairo due to a bomb threat telephoned through to
the airline's airport office |
28 JANUARY 2000
|
KATHMANDU
|
| The Nepalese government recommended that 18
airport officials, including the Airport Manager and Police
Chief, be charged with negligence of duty as a result of the
Kashrniri separatists' hijack of the Indian Airlines jet using
guns, grenades and knives. Tribhuvan International Airport
announced security will be upgraded. |
| Ali Reza Karami-Kheirabadi, who was arrested for
the hijack of a National Iranian Oil Company Fokker F-27,
carrying 38 passengers, to Iraq in 1993, was tried in Teheran.
He appealed for clemency and expressed regret for his actions. A
ruling is still to be issued. |
20 JANUARY 2000
|
NEW SOUTH WALES
|
| Two men with shotguns held up a courier plane at
Brewarrina Airport. They escaped, having stolen money and
documents from the aircraft, leaving the pilot and two others
handcuffed to a fence. |
20 JANUARY 2000
|
ISLAMABAD
|
| A PIA flight was held on the runway for two hours
following receipt of a threat that the aircraft would be
hijacked. |
| Figures were released regarding arrests at London
airports for passenger's "disruptive behaviour". 140
passengers were arrested at Heathrow airport alone for
endangering the safety of flights. A further 34 arrests took
place at Gatwick. |
| A driver, who had lost his way, was arrested and
charged with illegal entry into restricted airport zones,
driving on the runway and assault of a police officer. A Qantas
B-767 had to abort its landing when the pilot noticed car
headlights on the runway. |
| 45 people were evacuated from an Aer Lingus
flight at CDG following receipt of a bomb threat; no device was
found. |
| A security officer is alleged to have found
approx 159 of marijuana on singer Whitney Houston. The guards,
from a private company, are only allowed to arrest for crimes
related to airport security, so Houston was able to walk away. |
| A fourth bomb hoax in two months delayed an
EgyptAir plane for two hours before setting off for Bangkok. A
Royal Air Maroc flight, bound for Casablanca, was forced to land
in Cairo following a fight between two passengers. Neither
passengers were arrested but one was transferred to another
plane in order to separate the two. |
| The Pakistani cleric released from an Indian
prison following the Indian Airlines hijack has claimed that he
will continue to fight against Indian forces in Kashmir. Maulana
Masood Azhar was one of three prisoners released in
negotiations. following a warning trorn what was claimed to be a
top source in the Middle East, Indian police detained 11
passengers suspected of planning to hijack a Bangladesh Birnan
aircraft as they were boarding for a flight to Dhaka. It was
believed that they were intending to secure the release of those
sentenced to death for assassinating Sheikh Mujibur Rehrnan,
Bangladesh's founder. The passengers were carrying Iranian
passports but were thought to be Afghans who had lived as
refugees in Iran for many years. The Indian intelligence bureau
found the suspects had no visas for Dhaka and that five of them
were in possession of fake Israeli passports. |
| A Jet Airways flight to Kashmir was cancelled
following a bomb threat. A passenger and a person crossing the
runway (on the way to her farm) were killed when a Skypower
Express jet was landing. |
| A UA flight from Chicago to Los Angeles made an
unscheduled stop in Denver, where one passenger was taken into
custody. Jane Quimby, a spokeswoman for the FBI, said that
another passenger had thought he had overheard the suspect make
a comment about explosives. The plane was checked and allowed to
continue and no charges were pressed. |
28 DECEMBER 1999
|
DUSSELDORF
|
| A Middle Eastern man gave himself up to German
police having tried to take control of a plane by threatening
the crew that he had a bomb a few minutes before landing in
Dusseldorf. There were twenty three people aboard the Lufthansa
flight from Prague. |
27 DECEMBER 1999
|
BRINDISI
|
| A Belgian Sabena A-321, carrying 52 passengers
travelling from Athens to Brussels, requested to land at
Brindisi airport following a tip off from Greek airport
authorities that a device might have been planted on the plane.
After evacuation of the plane and a four hour a search the
aircraft was declared safe by police and bomb disposal experts. |
24 DECEMBER 1999
|
KANDAHAR
|
| An Indian Airlines A-300 was hijacked whilst en
route from the Nepalese capital to New Delhi. The jet ultimately
landed in Kandahar in southern Afghanistan, having made earlier
stops in Amritsar, Lahore and Dubai. The hijack ended on 31
December when the Kashmiri militant hijackers had secured the
release of three key political prisoners held in Indian gaols. |
| Rebel soldiers led by General Robert Guei, who
claimed to be the Ivory Coast's new president, took control of
Abidjan Airport as part of a coup d'etat. In overthrowing
President Henri Konan Bedie, General Guei said he would return
the country to a democracy and form a wide consensus government.
The coup began as an army mutiny over pay and conditions. |
| The U.S. FAA has determined that Murtala Mohammed
International Airport is now security cleared for direct flights
to operate between the two countries, thereby lifting a ban in
place since 1993. A Russian man was arrested after a lufthansa
jet diverted to Chicago, whilst en route to Mexico City. He was
sedated on board with 10mg Valium, although it had taken eight
people to restrain him. |
| Following a bomb threat, a KLM flight en route to
Amsterdam from New York made an unscheduled landing. The
aircraft itself was searched and departed, leaving the baggage
and cargo behind for further inspection. On the 1 lth
anniversary of the Lockerbie bombing, the Libyan leader Colonel
Qaddafi says he will demand an apology and compensation from the
US if the two men accused of the bombing are acquitted. |
14 DECEMBER 1999
|
STOCKHOLM
|
| Arianda's international terminal was evacuated
due to a suspected explosive device concealed in a box. Although
traces of dynamite on the box had triggered police sensors, the
box only contained electronic equipment. A man ran towards the
departure gates, from the screening checkpoint, having been
asked to turn on his laptop. The man was never located, so the
terminal was evacuated and all persons were researched. |
| Following the discovery of a threatening note, an
AA flight en route to Chicago from Chile landed, was evacuated
and searched. 80 of the 95 landing lights on the Donegal runway
were damaged by unidentified individuals who had cut through the
perimeter fence. |
| A pipe bomb, discovered in the offices of
Aeroflot, was defused by police. |
2 DECEMBER 1999
|
EDINBURGH
|
| A Channel Express cargo plane was searched by
bomb squad officers after its arrival from East Midlands airport
(where there had been a controlled explosion of a suspicious
package at the cargo centre earlier the same day) |
1 DECEMBER 1999
|
WASHINGTON
|
| In a government report, it was revealed that
Transportation Department investigators managed to breach
security in 117 out of 173 attempts at US airports during the
period December 1998 to April 1999. |
| The crew of a Chinese airliner overpowered and
arrested a man who claimed he had explosives and tried to
hijack the aircraft to Taiwan.
The aircraft landed safely in Xiamen after crew members
overpowered the man and found sugar in his bag.
Several passengers were slightly injured when they
panicked and tried to get off the plane while it was still
taxiing having landed at Xiamen. |
| Yemeni security forces shot and wounded a
bodyguard escorting the son of a top official during a
shootout at the country's main international airport.
They said the clash broke out at Sanaa airport after Qahtan
alAhmar, the son of Parliament's Speaker, refused to hand over
his weapons and those of his bodyguards before entering the
terminal to meet his brother after a trip abroad. Qahtan
was arrested after a one-hour gun battle, in which the
airport's tower was hit by at least one bullet. |
20 NOVEMBER 1999
|
KANSAS CITY
|
| An Ethiopian immigrant, Neuss Zeleke aged 37,
went on a shooting spree at a parking lot outside Kansas City
International Airport, killing one person before committing
suicide. Zeleke was motivated by anger against white
people, according to Kansas City police. |
14 NOVEMBER 1999
|
ADELAIDE
|
| The Australian government announced that police
would be authorised to board ships in international waters to
stem the flow of illegal immigrants into the country.
According to Reuters, in the 2 preceding weeks, 6 boats had
arrived in Australian waters carrying 717 illegal immigrants |
| Norway announced that it would free Souhaila
Andrawes, one of the Palestinians who had hijacked a Lufthansa
flight to Mogadishu in 1977, at the end of November after she
had served half of a 12-year sentence imposed by a German
court. |
12 NOVEMBER 1999
|
EDINBURGH
|
| DETR inspectors carried out a series of drills
at Edinburgh airport whilst posing as passengers boarding both
domestic and international flights. According to the
Daily Record, one passed through security with a gun strapped
to his back, another was not stopped despite carrying Semtex
in his briefcase and a third was allowed to board with a
butterfly knife strapped to her leg. Only one of the
five inspectors was stopped. |
| Nawaz Sharif, the former Prime Minister of
Pakistan, was charged with hijacking and kidnapping for his
refusal to allow a plane carrying the army chief to land in
Karachi at the time of the coup, almost a month earlier. The
plane, returning from Sri Lanka, carried about 200 passengers.
If convicted, Sharif could face the death penalty. |
| Three Singaporean Chinese men were arrested at
Yangon airport on suspicion of trafficking 5.7 kg (12.5
pounds) of heroin. The government's official New Light
of Myanmar newspaper said the men were arrested at the airport
while trying to fly to the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur
on a Malaysian Airlines flight. |
| An unidentified prankster, who claimed an
Egyptian passenger and an Indian passenger were carrying
explosives in their luggage, succeeding in delaying a MEA
plane at Cairo airport for three hours. After searching
the luggage of all 90 passengers, airport security said that
the prank caller had a grudge against some of the passengers. |
| A man who was arrested for making a series of
bomb threats against Northwest Airlines also claimed
responsibility for the downing of Egyptair Flight 990.
The FBI said the confession was not credible. |
3 NOVEMBER 1999
|
PANAMA CITY
|
| Three men, believed to be Colombian rebels,
seized 2 Panamanian helicopters on route to a beach resort.
Posing as sightseers they boarded the helicopters. 4Okm from
Panama City, they pulled out their weapons and bound and
gagged the pilots. The hijackers told the passengers
they needed the aircraft to transport commanders and
guerrillas injured in combat in Colombia. They evicted
the pilots and passengers and made off with the helicopters.
The tourists, 2 Ecuadorean women and 4 Colombian women, and
the pilots were unharmed. |
| Chinese police arrested 10 Indonesians
suspected of hijacking a Thai oil tanker near Singapore in
June.According to the official Xinhua news agency, during
police interrogation the gang leader confessed that his
Indonesian crew had seized the tanker Siam Xianxai on June 9,
taking one Thai crewman hostage and throwing 15 others off the
tanker. |
| Egyptair Flight 990 crashed having departed New
York's JFK airport for Cairo.All 217 aboard the B-767 were
killed.The cause is, as yet, unknown, although pilot suicide
and aerial piracy are being considered. |
| Armed robbers drove a luxury saloon car
backwards into the plate glass front window of the Bank of
Ireland branch on the airport terminal's departures level. The
masked robbers then held up staff who were counting cash,
stole about 50,000 Irish pounds ($66,500), and then sped off
in a second vehicle Security precautions at Dublin Airport at
one time included roadblocks and checkpoints, but they have
been scaled down to a low key presence since the Good Friday
peace agreement was signed in 1998 |
| A man who tried to hijack an Iran Air aircraft
en route from Tehran to Orumiyeh was arrested by Iranian
security guards. It was reported that he planned to
divert the plane to Paris where the Iranian President was to
begin a three-day visit the following day. He was said
to be a member of the outlawed Mujahedeen Khaiq, an Iranian
opposition group. |
| An Egyptair B-737 with 55 people aboard was
hijacked to Hamburg whilst en route from Istanbul to Cairo.It
is believed the hijacker, armed with a knife, wished to fly to
London, yet the aircraft had insufficient fuel.He surrendered
to the German police shortly after landing.The authorities
described the hijacker as mentally disturbed; according to a
Hamburg police spokesperson, "He always says only that he
likes Germany and Steffi Graf." One co-pilot suffered
bruises to his neck during the flight when he tried to resist
the hijacker. |
| Pop star Diana Ross was arrested following a
complaint from a member of Heathrow's security staff that she
was assaulted as she attempted a body search on Miss Ross in
the security area at Terminal Four.Miss Ross was detained by
police for nearly five hours before being cautioned and
continuing her journey to New York.It is believed that Miss
Ross had set off a metal detector before boarding a British
Airways Concorde flight to New York, and was angered when a
guard tried to search her by hand, as is the practice at
London Heathrow. |
| In overnight raids, D.E.A and U.S. Customs
agents rounded up 15 Miami International Airport ramp workers
charged in a drug conspiracy sting.The 1 5, some of whom were
supervisors, worked for companies that provided airlines with
ground services.It was the second time in just over two weeks
that authorities disclosed the results of an undercover drug
operation at the airport.On August 25th, 58 American Airlines
ramp workers and Sky Chefs International food caterers had
been arrested for, allegedly, off-loading luggage they were
told held cocaine on incoming international flights from
Aruba, Nassau, and Quito, Ecuador.The cocaine used in the
operation was fake. |
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