View Full Version : Air France bomb threat/hijack attempt?
BRISTOLRE
22nd Nov 2002, 07:10
BREAKING NEWS
News just coming in on a foiled hijack on Air France flight YMX-CDG.
Plane landed safely after he was overpowered by persons onboard.
The hijacker said to be in a position ready to BLOW THE AIRCRAFT UP.
I dont have any more details as yet
:eek:
Dublinflyer
22nd Nov 2002, 07:36
From Sky News
An Air France flight from Montreal has landed safely in Paris after a failed hijack bid by a passenger, the Paris airports authority have said.
"A passenger was overcome after he threatened to blow the plane up," Jacques Reder, a spokesman for the authority said.
"The plane landed normally at 06:07 local time (0507 GMT)," he added.
Flight 345 from Montreal landed at Charles-de-Gaulle airport, north of Paris.
Junior Transport Minister Dominique Bussereau told Europe 1 radio that the passenger involved had been arrested and all the other passengers had safely left the plane.
He said it was not yet clear whether the would-be hijacker had really had a bomb.
An airport police spokesman said police could not immediately identify the passenger involved but expected to release more information soon.
According to the Le Monde website (www.lemonde.fr) this happened on the ground in Montreal before departure.
Momo
shakespeare
22nd Nov 2002, 07:47
I imagine the security lads would have given him a fair sort of a touch up by the time he made it to the lock up. My experience with the French is they hit (very hard) first and ask questions later. No politically correct B.S. Just the way it should be!!
As this has now scrolled off the Le Monde breaking news section, here is the link:
http://www.lemonde.fr/dh/0,5987,3208--11054178,00.html
Momo
So once again security failed to stop these individuals getting onto an aircraft (while they put the reinforced cockpit door the wrong side of the toilets and remove any form of self defence from the crews).
It appears that the 45% of PPRuNe pollers are correct.
bugg smasher
22nd Nov 2002, 08:14
If I have read the LeMonde article correctly, it states that a bomb threat was made while the aircraft was on the ground in Montreal, yet the aircraft was not searched until it arrived in Paris, safely it seems, due to the heroic 'sang froid' of the captain and his crew. A hearty congrats to Air France and the Montreal airport authority for keeping the flight to schedule.
Cyrano
22nd Nov 2002, 08:37
This is a little confusing. From the Le Monde report, it seems to have been a bomb threat rather than a hijack attempt: there is no suggestion in the Le Monde report that anything untoward happened *on the aircraft*.
The Le Monde article reports that two passengers had an "altercation" on the ground at YMQ. One of them, of Moroccan nationality, was denied boarding, and then appears to have alleged that there was a bomb on board:
L'un des deux n'a finalement pas embarqué et a ensuite fait courir le bruit qu'une bombe était à bord de l'avion
I can only assume that this threat was made after the plane was well on its way to CDG - why otherwise would it have left without being searched? The man who made the threat has been arrested (by Canadian police).
Cyrano
Rollingthunder
22nd Nov 2002, 09:05
A lot of confusion on this one. Aircraft was out of Dorval (YUL) not YMX. Now Air France is denying there even was a hijack attempt. There may be some truth about a Moroccan national denied boarding in Dorval for some reason and subsequently saying there was a bomb on board.
Oceanic
22nd Nov 2002, 09:30
Air France now deny any such hijack incident having taken place. BBC (Radio 5 Live) reporting the bomb hoax a more credible thread. Strange one this.
ShenziRubani
22nd Nov 2002, 12:59
Very confusing issue. Effectively, Air France is denying the highjack attempt saying that there was a fight between 2 passengers before boarding and that the guy left on the ground threathened saying there was a bomb on board. But the Jr Minister of Transport and French authorities are giving very detailed reports, saying that the highjacker was caught on arrival in Paris, and is in custody at the moment after being overcome by crew and passengers.
someone is trying to hide something, but what and why?
RatherBeFlying
22nd Nov 2002, 14:06
CBC Radio ran a report from his seatmate (seems to be a CBC reporter) that when the plane landed it came to a stop on the runway, some 20 French police entered with automatic weapons walked up to his row, took his wallet and walked him off the plane without handcuffs after verifying he had no cabin baggage.
The baggage was then unloaded and passengers had to identify their baggage before it was brought into the terminal.
No mention was made of untoward conduct during the flight.
The latest report is that the man detained in Paris is an employee of the man detained in Montreal and that they had some altercation before boarding -- also that the boss reported a "threat" to the security authorities.
PaperTiger
22nd Nov 2002, 16:06
CBC is now calling it all a 'hoax', but there were goings-on at both ends of the flight so that's not quite the right term IMO.
http://cbc.ca/stories/2002/11/22/airfrance_hijack021122
(Edited to remove 'editorial' content now that I've calmed down.)