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Helicopter hijacked, Belgium

Hijacked shortly after departed from Antwerp EBAW:
https://www.aviation24.be/airlines/a...ussels-prison/
https://www.flightradar24.com/data/a...o-hsm#259a5eb4
After the ordeal, the pilot flew to the federal police air support unit, at EBMB (military part of EBBR) where she was interrogated, and forensics team searched for evidence.

Very weird story....

Probably trying to escape Belgium.

I thought Uncle Ian had retired :O

Yes I have but if the money's right I could probably do it better than the Belgian pilot. :hmm:

Intrigued by the last 2 posts.... sometimes Google can be your friend...
I do hope, Sir, you do not mind me re-quoting your original post in this thread again. I presume the young lady yesterday, felt exactly the same. And torrential rains while at rooftop level, certainly didn't help her in the ordeal that lasted an hour and a half.

Quote:

Originally Posted by uncle ian (Post 2936705)

As already said its afterwards you get really scared, no time for it during the emergency unless..........some one has a gun to your head for a while. 1988, flying from Stansted to Leicester except my passenger decided he wanted to land at a high security prison en route to get his mates "out of jail". I literally had a gun to my head for 15 minutes or so. Even then, and despite threats of "one in the leg if you don't do as your told", the brain is working so hard to find a way out that fear takes a back seat.

After they'd gone and I tried to call the police my mouth was so dry I couldn't talk straight away.

I've had loads of other scares in 35 years of this game but I think believing I was about to be shot as soon as landed takes the biscuit. My only strategy was to continue flying for as long as possible until a way out presented itself thus prolonging the pain. And, of course, the flow of adrenalin slows time down to a crawl............I promise you that 15 minutes felt like hours.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hueyracer (Post 10892685)

Very weird story....

Isn't it just! I do hope that things are thoroughly looked into, as this 'probe' could always be a response check.

Maybe not the sharpest knife in the drawer?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...lunder-belgium

Man arrested over jailbreak attempt after helicopter booking blunder

Mike Gielen used real name to book aircraft involved in attempt to break wife out of Brussels jail
A criminal who hijacked and diverted a helicopter in mid-air in an attempt to break his wife out of a Belgian prison has been arrested after detectives found he used his own name to book the flight.

Mike Gielen, 24, threatened the helicopter’s pilot using a replica handgun as he sought to spring Kristel Appelt, 27, from Berkendaal women’s prison in south Brussels on Friday, where she was being held on suspicion of murdering an ex-boyfriend.

The helicopter circled the prison several times but Gielen’s plan was foiled as the pilot was unable to land within the courtyard. While the helicopter flew over the prison the inmates cheered and waved, but Gielen became nauseous and had to put his head out of the helicopter five times to be sick.

The pilot was then instructed to fly to Hélécine, a town south of the Belgian capital, where a getaway car was waiting in a car park. Gielen was later found with his 50-year-old adoptive father.

The two men and a further two suspects, aged 18 and 22, were arrested within 24 hours of the failed prison break after detectives found Gielen had used his own name when booking the helicopter at Deurne airport near Antwerp.

“I can confirm that my client admitted that he wanted to free his wife from prison,” said Tom van Overbeke, Gielen’s lawyer. “It seems the whole thing has been staged quite amateurishly.”

The four men will appear before an investigating judge in Antwerp on charges of theft with violence with a weapon, participation in a criminal organisation, unlawful deprivation of liberty and attempted escape.

Gielen, a convicted drug smuggler, met and married his wife in the mixed-gender Hasselt prison last year. “When both Kristel and I had visitors in January 2019, we bumped into each other in the visitors’ area,” Gielen told the Het Belang van Limburg newspaper last year. “We still knew each other from before, but hadn’t seen each other for a long time. Because we could never see each other, we both started taking computer lessons in prison. That was the only way to be together.”

Appelt is in jail on suspicion of stabbing to death Andy Vandereyt, 30, during a street fight on 2 December 2018.