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2/20/2007, 10:29 AM
Jetliner's pilot used a deliberately rough landing and discreet alert to passengers to overpower hijacker.
By Juan Manuel Pardellas
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Saturday, February 17, 2007
SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Canary Islands — A pilot thwarted a hijacking by discreetly warning the passengers in French — a language the gunman didn't speak — that he would knock the attacker off-balance with a rough landing, and they should be ready to pounce. The ploy worked.
As Capt. Ahmedou Mohamed Lemine landed the Air Mauritania Boeing 737, he slammed on the brakes, then abruptly accelerated, throwing the hijacker to the floor, officials said Friday. The forewarned passengers and crew threw boiling water from a coffee maker on the man's face and chest, then beat him into submission. :D
About 20 passengers were injured in thwarting the hijacker. But this baby and others aboard the Boeing survived the attempt.
Angel Medina G.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
(enlarge photo)
Passengers on an Air Mauritania Boeing 737 flight to the Canary Islands, including Mohamed Ahmed, left, were alerted by the plane's pilot to pounce on a hijacker when the plane jerked suddenly and caused the hijacker to fall.
"The man deserves a medal," Air Mauritania spokesman Ahmedou Ahmedou said of Lemine, a 20-year veteran of the airline, after the ordeal ended Thursday evening.
Brandishing two pistols, the lone attacker had hijacked the Boeing 737, carrying 71 passengers and a crew of eight, shortly after it took off from the Mauritanian capital of Nouakchott. The flight was headed for Gran Canaria, one of Spain's Canary Islands, with a stopover planned in Nouadhibou in northern Mauritania.
He wanted to go to France so that he could request political asylum, said Mohamed Ould Mohamed Cheikh, Mauritania's top police official.
The hijacker was identified by Spanish Interior Ministry officials as Mohamed Abderraman, a 32-year-old Mauritanian. Mauritania has said the hijacker was a Moroccan from the Western Sahara.
The crew told the hijacker, who spoke Arabic, that there wasn't enough fuel to fly to France. In addition, Morocco denied a request for the plane to land in the city of Djala in the Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara, so Lemine headed for Las Palmas on Gran Canaria, the flight's original destination.
While talking to the gunman, Lemine realized the hijacker didn't understand French. The 50-year-old captain then used the plane's public address system to tip off passengers in French about his plan to throw the hijacker off-balance so that the flight crew and about 10 passengers in the front rows could subdue him.
About 20 people on the jetliner were slightly injured when the plane braked suddenly.
"We were afraid. We thought it was people from al Qaeda or the Algerian GSPC who were going to cut our throats," said Aicha Mint Sidi, a 45-year-old passenger, referring to an Algerian Muslim extremist group.
"I trembled during and after the hijacking," passenger Dahi Ould Ali, 52, said. "I thought the plane was going to blow up any minute, either in mid-air or on landing."
Good Guys: 1, Bad Guys: 0
By Juan Manuel Pardellas
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Saturday, February 17, 2007
SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Canary Islands — A pilot thwarted a hijacking by discreetly warning the passengers in French — a language the gunman didn't speak — that he would knock the attacker off-balance with a rough landing, and they should be ready to pounce. The ploy worked.
As Capt. Ahmedou Mohamed Lemine landed the Air Mauritania Boeing 737, he slammed on the brakes, then abruptly accelerated, throwing the hijacker to the floor, officials said Friday. The forewarned passengers and crew threw boiling water from a coffee maker on the man's face and chest, then beat him into submission. :D
About 20 passengers were injured in thwarting the hijacker. But this baby and others aboard the Boeing survived the attempt.
Angel Medina G.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
(enlarge photo)
Passengers on an Air Mauritania Boeing 737 flight to the Canary Islands, including Mohamed Ahmed, left, were alerted by the plane's pilot to pounce on a hijacker when the plane jerked suddenly and caused the hijacker to fall.
"The man deserves a medal," Air Mauritania spokesman Ahmedou Ahmedou said of Lemine, a 20-year veteran of the airline, after the ordeal ended Thursday evening.
Brandishing two pistols, the lone attacker had hijacked the Boeing 737, carrying 71 passengers and a crew of eight, shortly after it took off from the Mauritanian capital of Nouakchott. The flight was headed for Gran Canaria, one of Spain's Canary Islands, with a stopover planned in Nouadhibou in northern Mauritania.
He wanted to go to France so that he could request political asylum, said Mohamed Ould Mohamed Cheikh, Mauritania's top police official.
The hijacker was identified by Spanish Interior Ministry officials as Mohamed Abderraman, a 32-year-old Mauritanian. Mauritania has said the hijacker was a Moroccan from the Western Sahara.
The crew told the hijacker, who spoke Arabic, that there wasn't enough fuel to fly to France. In addition, Morocco denied a request for the plane to land in the city of Djala in the Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara, so Lemine headed for Las Palmas on Gran Canaria, the flight's original destination.
While talking to the gunman, Lemine realized the hijacker didn't understand French. The 50-year-old captain then used the plane's public address system to tip off passengers in French about his plan to throw the hijacker off-balance so that the flight crew and about 10 passengers in the front rows could subdue him.
About 20 people on the jetliner were slightly injured when the plane braked suddenly.
"We were afraid. We thought it was people from al Qaeda or the Algerian GSPC who were going to cut our throats," said Aicha Mint Sidi, a 45-year-old passenger, referring to an Algerian Muslim extremist group.
"I trembled during and after the hijacking," passenger Dahi Ould Ali, 52, said. "I thought the plane was going to blow up any minute, either in mid-air or on landing."
Good Guys: 1, Bad Guys: 0