Passenger attacks Pilot with knife - commits suicide by jumping out of the plane

[iwrbf]

Hi,

german news agency dpa just reported that a 26 year old man chartered a C172 with a pilot for a sightseeing tour around munich.

After attacking the pilot with a knive (and injuring his chin), the gone-mad passenger jumped out of the plane and crashed into a roof.

Original text:

Dramatischer Selbstmord: Mann stürzt sich nach Kampf aus Kleinflugzeug - Nachrichten Panorama - WELT ONLINE

Kind regards,
Peter

[Farrell]

Passenger Attacks Pilot With Knife.....

Pilot Kicks Passenger Out Of Plane!

[grounded27]

Possible Darwin award?

[MidgetBoy]

Pilot wants to kill his new girlfriend's husband. Cuts chin and kicks passenger out of plane and helps claim insurance.

[Pilot DAR]

Well.... Not wanting to sound disbelieving, or dispute facts, It is not all that easy to get out of a Cessna in flight. Unless it's a jump plane with a modified door, the regular door is hard to get opened more than 6 inches or so. I suppose it can be done, but you really gotta want it! I guess the pilot was helping - that could make the difference....

[Ryan5252]

Not wanting to sound disbelieving, or dispute facts, It is not all that easy to get out of a Cessna in flight.

That is certainly not unbelievable! Its not all that easy to get out of a Cessna on the ground either!! (It's ok I'm not having a go at the beloved Cessna though Jim - I still hire my trusty little 152 against the added comfort of a 172 or PA28!)

In all seriousness though, an interesting incident which will probably spark a short lived debate on GA security procedures for a time before this gets filed away under its proper heading of 'freak isolated light aircraft suicide'.

Ryan

[Katamarino]

Didn't this already happen once in Germany? Last year, maybe?

[Ned Parsnip]

Didn't this already happen once in Germany? Last year, maybe?

If so, he did the job right this time.

[beany]

I seem to remember something similar happening last year as well...... can't remember where though (US??)

B

[Captain Smithy]

Dear or dear. What is the world coming to?

There's only so far you can legislate, unfortunately there have always been and always will be nutters out there and there's nothing we can do about that.

Smithy

[IO540]

I remember a case in the 1960s, in Czechoslovakia, when a local man went up for a ride in a Morava twin, attacked the pilot with a knife and asked him to fly him to West Germany.

The pilot did but the attacker ended up in jail - in Germany I think. I saw pictures of the plane afterwards; blood all over the panel.

These things happen once every so many years - nothing can be done about it. Extremely rare.

[172driver]

Wasn't there also a similar case here some years back where a chap departed a Cessna over the Channel ?

In any case, Pilot DAR has it right - you really gotta want it to open the door on a Cessna in flight!

[flybymike]

The pilot did but the attacker ended up in jail - in Germany I think. I saw pictures of the plane afterwards; blood all over the panel.

In a similar but unrelated vein, I recall a report from an insurance company many years ago of a couple of Canadian hunters who had shot and bagged a moose (or some such similar creature ) and were transporting it back home in their aircraft, when they discovered en route that the moose was not in fact dead. Apparently when it awoke it decided that it did not much care for flying and set about its captors with a vengeance .
After a shoot out in the cabin with the pilot's passenger, the plane finally landed, the pilot with a broken arm, and much of the panel wiped out and covered in Moose entrails and bullet holes...

[n5296s]

you really gotta want it to open the door on a Cessna in flight!

Roll into a right-hand knife-edge... having unlatched the door first of course.

[Pilot DAR]

Roll into a right-hand knife-edge

I think you'd have to roll a 172 quite a few times to find an edge on it like a knife!

If this was the means by which egress was accomplished, I suppose the pilot must have been a participant!

[Maoraigh1]

Previous incident near Cascais, Portugal, reported on 15 February 2010. Passenger had a gun, and intended suicide.

[1800ed]

Better put a wall and a locked door between the front and back of all four seaters then, just in case

[Captain Smithy]

What if the passenger is in the front though?