Aircraft hijacking (also known as airplane hijacking, skyjacking, plane hijacking, plane jacking, air robbery, air piracy, or aircraft piracy, with the last term used within the special aircraft jurisdiction of the United States) is the unlawful seizure of an aircraft by an individual or a group. Dating from the earliest of hijackings, most cases involve the pilot being forced to fly according to the hijacker's demands. There have also been incidents where the hijackers have overpowered the flight crew, made unauthorized entry into the cockpit and flown them into buildings—most notably in the September 11 attacks—and in some cases, planes have been hijacked by the official captain or first officer, such as with Ethiopian Airlines Flight 702.
Unlike carjacking or sea piracy, an aircraft hijacking is not usually committed with the intention of robbery or theft. Individuals driven by personal gain often divert planes to destinations where they are not planning to go themselves. Some hijackers intend to use passengers or crew as hostages, either for monetary ransom or for some political or administrative concession by authorities. Various motives have driven such occurrences, such as demanding the release of certain high-profile individuals or for the right of political asylum (notably Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961), but sometimes a hijacking may have been affected by a failed private life or financial distress, as in the case of Aarno Lamminparras in Finnair Flight 405. Hijackings involving hostages have produced violent confrontations between hijackers and the authorities, during negotiation and settlement. In several casesmost famously Air France Flight 139, Lufthansa Flight 181, and Air France Flight 8969the hijackers were not satisfied and showed no inclination to surrender, resulting in the deployment of counterterrorist police tactical units or special forces to rescue the passengers.
In most jurisdictions of the world, aircraft hijacking is punishable by life imprisonment or a long prison sentence. In most jurisdictions where the death penalty is a legal punishment, aircraft hijacking is a capital crime, including in China, India, Liberia, and the U.S. states of Georgia and Mississippi.
History Airplane hijackings have occurred since the early days of flight. These can be classified in the following eras: Pre-1929, 1929–1957, 1958–1979, 1980–2000, and 2001–present. Early incidents involved light planes, but this later involved passenger aircraft as commercial aviation became widespread.
Pre-1929 One of the first accounts of an aircraft hijacking dates to 1919, sometime during the short existence of the Hungarian Soviet Republic (21 March – 1 August). Hungarian polymath Baron Franz Nopcsa von Felső-Szilvás was a spy for Austria-Hungary in World War I, whose defeat and dissolution ceded Nopcsa's native Transylvania to Romania. Under the new socialist state government, Nopcsa and Bajazid Elmaz Doda (his secretary and boyfriend) were unable to obtain a passport to leave the country. To circumvent this, Nopcsa forged documents from the Ministry of War that convinced the military commander at the on the outskirts of Budapest to provide him and Doda with a small airplane and a pilot. Somewhere over Győr, approximately halfway between Budapest and their supposed destination of Sopron, Franz pulled out a revolver, held it to the pilot's head, and demanded to be flown to Vienna (then a part of the also transitionary Republic of German-Austria (12 November 1918 – 10 September 1919)). Nopcsa and Doda successfully arrived in Vienna, where they lived until Nopcsa's murder–suicide of Doda in 1933 after years of depression and financial destitution.
1929–1957 Between 1929 and 1957, there were fewer than 20 incidents of reported hijackings worldwide; several occurred in Eastern Europe.
An early but unconfirmed account of hijacking occurred in December 1929. J. Howard "Doc" DeCelles was flying a postal route for a Mexican firm, Transportes Aeras Transcontinentales, ferrying mail from San Luis Potosí to Torreon and then on to Guadalajara. Saturnino Cedillo, the governor of the state of San Luis Potosí, ordered him to divert. Several other men were also involved, and through an interpreter, DeCelles had no choice but to comply. He was allegedly held captive for several hours under armed guard before being released.
The first recorded aircraft hijack took place on February 21, 1931, in Arequipa, Peru. Byron Richards, flying a Ford Tri-Motor, was approached on the ground by armed revolutionaries. He refused to fly them anywhere during a 10-day standoff. Richards was informed that the revolution was successful and he could be freed in return for flying one of the men to Lima.30 years later Richards was again the victim of a failed hijacking attempt. A father and son boarded his Continental Airlines Boeing 707 in El Paso, Texas and tried to force him at gunpoint to fly the plane to Cuba hoping for a cash reward from Fidel Castro. FBI agents and police chased the plane down the runway and shot out its tires, averting the hijacking. See
The following year, in September 1932, a Sikorsky S-38 with registration P-BDAD, registered to Nyrba do Brasil, was seized in the company's hangar by three men, who took a hostage. Despite having no flying experience, they managed to take off. However, the aircraft crashed in São João de Meriti, killing the four men. Apparently, the hijack was related to the events of the Constitutionalist Revolution in São Paulo; it is considered to be the first hijack that took place in Brazil.
On October 28, 1939, the first murder on a plane took place in Brookfield, Missouri, US. The victim was Carl Bivens, a flight instructor, who was teaching a man named Earnest P. "Larry" Pletch. While airborne in a Taylor Cub monoplane, Pletch shot Bivens twice in the back of the head. Pletch later told prosecutors, "Carl was telling me I had a natural ability and I should follow that line", adding, "I had a revolver in my pocket and without saying a word to him, I took it out of my overalls and I fired a bullet into the back of his head. He never knew what struck him." The Chicago Daily Tribune stated it was one of the most spectacular crimes of the 20th century. Pletch pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison. However, he was released on March 1, 1957, after serving 17 years, and lived until June 2001.
In 1942 near Malta, two New Zealanders, a South African, and an Englishman achieved the first confirmed in-air hijack when they overpowered their captors aboard an Italian seaplane that was flying them to a prisoner-of-war camp. As they approached an Allied base, they were strafed by Supermarine Spitfires unaware of the aircraft's true operators and forced to land on the water. However, all on board survived to be picked up by a British boat.
In the years following World War II, Philip Baum, an aviation security expert, suggested that the development of a rebellious youth "piggybacking on to any cause which challenged the status quo or acted in support of those deemed oppressed" may have been a contributor to attacks against the aviation field. The first hijacking of a commercial flight occurred on the Cathay Pacific Miss Macao on July 16, 1948. After this incident and others in the 1950s, airlines recommended that flight crews comply with the hijackers' demands rather than risk a violent confrontation. There were also various hijacking incidents and assaults on planes in China and the Middle East. The forced landing by the Israeli Air Force of a Syrian Airlines plane in December 1954 has been described by multiple writers as a state-sponsored hijacking.
On 23 July 1956, in the Hungarian People's Republic, seven passengers hijacked a domestic flight of Malév Hungarian Airlines, a Lisunov Li-2 (registration HA-LIG), to escape from behind the Iron Curtain, and flew it to West Germany. The aircraft landed safely at Ingolstadt Air Base without injuries.
An aircraft belonging to the airline Lloyd Aereo Boliviano was hijacked in Bolivia on September 26, 1956. The DC-4 was carrying 47 prisoners who were being transported from Santa Cruz, Bolivia, to El Alto, in La Paz. A political group was waiting to take them to a concentration camp located in Carahuara de Carangas, Oruro. The 47 prisoners overpowered the crew and gained control of the aircraft while airborne and diverted the plane to Tartagal, Argentina. Prisoners took control of the aircraft and received instructions to again fly to Salta, Argentina, as the airfield in Tartagal was not big enough. Upon landing, they told the government of the injustice they were subjected to, and received political asylum.
On October 22, 1956, French forces hijacked a Moroccan airplane carrying leaders of the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN) during the ongoing Algerian War. The plane, which was carrying Ahmed Ben Bella, Hocine Aït Ahmed, and Mohamed Boudiaf, was destined to leave from Palma de Mallorca for Tunis where the FLN leaders were to conference with Prime Minister Habib Bourguiba, but French forces redirected the flight to occupied Algiers, where the FLN leaders were arrested.
1958–1979
Between 1958 and 1967, there were approximately 40 hijackings worldwide. Beginning in 1958, hijackings from Cuba to other destinations started to occur; in 1961, hijackings from other destinations to Cuba became prevalent. The first happened on May 1, 1961, on a flight from Miami to Key West. The perpetrator, armed with a knife and gun, forced the captain to land in Cuba.
Australia was relatively untouched by the threat of hijackings until July 19, 1960. On that evening, a 22-year-old Russian man attempted to divert Trans Australia Airlines Flight 408 to Darwin or Singapore. The crew were able to subdue the man after a brief struggle.
On November 10, 1961, a commercial airliner belonging to the Portuguese company TAP, which departed from Casablanca to Lisbon, was hijacked by a group of six opponents of the dictatorship of Salazar. Under threat of weapons, they forced the pilot to fly over the Portuguese capital and other cities at low altitude, while dropping thousands of leaflets denouncing the fraudulent elections that were to take place days later. The plane then returned to Morocco, where the perpetrators of the hijacking were arrested, but they requested political asylum and were later released without trial.Aviation Safety Network - Wikibase - Friday, November 10, 1961.
According to the FAA, in the 1960s, there were 100 attempts of hijackings involving U.S. aircraft: 77 successful and 23 unsuccessful. Recognizing the danger early, the FAA issued a directive on July 28, 1961, which prohibits unauthorized persons from carrying concealed firearms and interfering with crew member duties. The Federal Aviation Act of 1958 was amended to impose severe penalties for those seizing control of a commercial aircraft. Airlines could also refuse to transport passengers who were likely to cause danger. That same year, the FAA and Department of Justice created the Peace Officers Program which put trained marshals on flights. A few years later, on May 7, 1964, the FAA adopted a rule requiring that cockpit doors on commercial aircraft be kept locked at all times. One proposal the FAA had for combating the hijackings was to build a fake Havana airport in Southern Florida. However they determined that it would be too expensive. +Destinations desired by U.S. hijackers, 1968–72Transport attemptsDestinationNumber90432111111111Unknown3 Extortion attemptsExtortion26Total137