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Old 29th Sep 2001, 00:48
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fireflybob
 
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: UK
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Yes, something to think about...

The idea of doing aerobatics is not new...

From todays Daily Telegraph:-

How one El Al pilot dealt with a hijacker
By Stephen Robinson
(Filed: 28/09/2001)


EL AL operates the best airline security in the world and the Israeli national carrier's pilots prefer to throw hijackers off their feet rather than allow them to take control of their aircraft.

Capt Uri Bar-Lev was flying his El Al 707 from Amsterdam to New York in September 1970 when stewards alerted him to a hijacking in progress, he recalled in the Wall Street Journal this week.

There had been a spate of hijackings around that time designed to secure the release of Palestine Liberation Organisation terrorists, so Capt Bar-Lev was psychologically prepared as the plane cruised at 31,000 ft.

When told by cabin crew that the hijackers were demanding access to the cockpit, he replied: "Sit down, we are not going to be hijacked."

Then he threw his jet into a negative-G dive, an extreme descent which creates virtual zero gravity on the aircraft and makes it impossible for anyone to stay on his feet.

In the confusion, the two undercover El Al marshals aboard the jet jumped on the hijackers, a woman in a blonde wig and a man, who had already shot a steward.

The male hijacker was killed by the marshals, and his woman companion - who turned out to be the notorious terrorist Leila Khaled - was apprehended. The plane diverted to London, where police wanted to know how the terrorist had been killed.

They never received a proper explanation because the two El Al marshals jumped out of a trap door underneath the 707, ran across the Tarmac and slipped aboard another Tel Aviv-bound jet.

How to Deal With a Hijacker
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