Plane Hijacking facts
While investigating facts about Plane Hijacking Movies and Plane Hijacking In The 1970s, I found out little known, but curios details like:
A hijacked Ethiopian Airlines plane was headed to Switzerland, but had to be intercepted by French/Italian fighter jets because the Swiss Air force doesn't work on nights and weekends.
how many plane hijackings have there been?
When the host of "Candid Camera" Allen Funt was on a flight that was highjacked, passengers recognized him and thought the it was all just a joke for the show. Despite his insistence that the hijacking was real, no one believed him until the plane landed in Cuba.
What does hijacking a plane mean?
In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across answering what are the odds of a plane hijacking. Here are 50 of the best facts about Plane Hijacking Stories and Plane Hijacking Today I managed to collect.
what is hijacking a plane?
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Whilst filming the movie Entebbe, about a plane being hijacked, a plane was hijacked and landed at the airport on the day of the filming. They then filmed the real hostages being released and edited it into the movie. The producer called it a "blessing from the sky on a day of bad acting."
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A FedEx pilot inverted a cargo jet pinning a hijacker to the ceiling of the plane, performing maneuvers beyond all known capabilities to land safely
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A disgruntled employee attempted to hijack and crash a FedEx flight using hammers and a speargun. Despite their traumatic head injuries, one pilot flew the plane upside down while the other grappled with the assailant until he was subdued. Both pilots lived and managed to land the plane safely
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Neerja Bhanot, a 22 year old Indian air hostess who helped hide 41 American passports aboard a hijacked plane. She died shielding three children from gunfire and was posthumously awarded bravery medals from India, Pakistan, and the United States.
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In 1994, a disgruntled FedEx employee tried to hijack and crash a cargo flight, using hammers and a spear gun. Despite serious injuries during the attack, the pilot and crew were able to land the plane. The pilot flew the DC-10 upside down at times in an attempt to stop the hijacker
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Disgruntled FedEx employee tried to hijack and crash a cargo flight, armed with hammers and a spear gun. Despite serious injuries during the attack, the pilot and crew were able to land the plane. The pilot flew the plane upside down several times in an attempt to stop the hijacker.
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On May 25, 2000, Philippines Airlines flight 812 was hijacked by a man who robbed the passengers of their valuables and then asked the pilot to depressurise the plane so that he could jump out. He was pushed by a flight attendant out from the plane and his body was found three days later.
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The pilot episode of an offshoot of The X-Files called The Lone Gunmen featured its heroes racing to stop a plane getting hijacked by govt agents and flown into the World Trade Center to increase defense spending while blaming foreign enemies. Aired 6 months before 9/11.
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On 9/11/2001, North East Air Defense Sector commanding officer Kevin Nasypany remarked "The hijack's not supposed to be for another hour" because they had scheduled a simulation involving politically motivated asylum-seekers hijacking a plane & landing it on a Cuba-like island
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In 2014 Italian and French jets escorted a hijacked plane because the Swiss Air Force only works during office hours.
Plane Hijacking data charts
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What is true about plane hijacking?
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Alan Funt, creator of "Candid Camera", was on an airplane with his family that was hijacked. All of the passengers recognized Alan Funt, and thought it was a skit. No one took the hijacking seriously, until the plane was diverted and actually landed in Cuba.
A drunk Norwegian with an air gun hijacked a plane in 1985, with demands to speak to the prime minister. After consuming the plane's entire beer supply, he surrendered his weapon to authorities in exchange for more beer. There were no deaths or injuries. - source
2 of the 9/11 plane hijackers took a flight school in Florida to receive flight training, but told their instructors they didn’t need to be taught how to take off or land.
There is a theory that Tommy Wiseau, director of "The Room" is actually D.B. Cooper, a plane hijacker who escaped in the 70's. This is due to Tommy's shady past, which he has often covered up. - source
When was the last plane hijacking?
After a hijacked Ethiopian Air jet crashed in the ocean, an estimated 60-80 people who survived the initial water-crash ignored the captains pleas to not inflate the life vests inside the plane. They all drowned when rushing water pinned their inflated vests against the fuselage's ceiling.
How to survive a plane hijacking?
A man hijacked a plane to force the Pope to reveal the 3rd secret of Fátima
In the late 1960s, US plane hijacking had become so commonplace, specifically requests to be down to Cuba, but the industry so resistant to security changes, that a suggestion was seriously proposed to build a fake Havana airport in southern Florida to fool the hijackers into capitulation
After a wave of plane hijackers demanded passage to Cuba in the 1960s, the FAA considered building a fake Havana airport in Florida. US agents would wait for the plane to land and arrest the unsuspecting hijackers.
On 31 March 1970, a group of left-wing extremists from the Japanese Red Army Faction hijacked a plane with samurai swords and demanded to be taken to North Korea.