Hijacked MAS flight MH 653 on 4th December 1977
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Air rage?
Air rage was definitely a possible cause. I have seen drunks do worse on the road and there had been cases where firearms were discharged over petty issues when the protaganists had a little too much " tani ".
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The gsingh mentioned here must be the bloke who leers with his sideway glances at all the el Chicas up at KAL..heard his contract was terminated. Creepy fella who always prowl the 2nd crew lounge at hyatt regency icn in the wee hours of the morning.
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That's the one, creepy crawley is an apt description. He's now holed up in Jeddah with Alwajheer, a charter operator for hajj flights. If you must know, the g string is knotted up with the ex east african airways conman devon in that outfit.
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What? The same **** again? g string or gian stink? Wasn't he dobbed by a female crew at Jet Airways in the late 90s and had to make a very humiliating public Indian type apology to that damsel before they allowed him to wriggle off to KAL. Never learnt, huh?
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tarmarudden.......it's unlikely to be a simple air rage. The transmission by the pilots that they were diverting to SIN suggested that they were made to do so under duress and the hijacker/s had a plan. Somewhere along the way things must have gone really bad that must have triggered the hijacker's desperate actions.
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Air Rage?
Highly unlikely to be air rage. The hijacker must have demanded that the landing at Subang be aborted and proceed to Singapore. Somewhere along the flight to Singapore, things went wrong and the pilots were shot. Unfortunately the old CVRs only have the last 30 minutes of cockpit conversations remaining and most of the other pilot/hijacker interactions prior to the final 30 minutes were lost. I would surmise that Captain Ganjoor must have told the hijacker of the consequences expected once they land in Singapore, leading to the hijacker into thinking that it was a no win situation. Hence the rampage killing the pilots and then suicide.
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The hijackers would probably have not much chance after landing in Singapore. The STAR squad adopts similar policies to the IDF squad that stormed the hijackers at Entebbe where Bibi's brother was the commander.
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Hi Machang.......what's STAR & IDF? Are they Swat teams like our UTK? I have never heard of our UTK being deployed for anti hijack stuff but they seemed quite clumsy using C4 for body disposal!
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STAR is the acronym for the Singapore Police Special Tactics And Rescue. However when the MH 653 hijack took place no such unit existed. There was a motley part time bunch called the Police Tactical Team which had tactical training with the IDF. I am not sure they would have mounted an Entebbe type assault had MH 653 landed at Paya Lebar, but I am sure they would have scrambled the Skyhawks to intercept and divert it to Tengah or Seletar.
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Hi guys, I thought the anti hijacking stuff is done by the SAF CDO FN, an armed forces commando unit. Back in 1991 when SQ 117 was hijacked by some Pakistanis, the aircraft was stormed and all 4 hijackers killed.
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Air rage
I was fifteen when the Mas 653 went down, a few days before my sixteenth birthday. My father was a passenger. We had been expecting him to be home for my birthday. Instead, in the hours of the night between the 4th and 5th, my father's colleagues and family friends came to our house in the middle of the night to tell us that the plane he was on had been hijacked, bombed and all were dead. In the days after, all we got as far as an explanation was a brief excerpted transcript from the flight data recorder in the cockpit. A few lines with one person making a demand, shooting of the co-pilot - I think, then the pilot. I am very grateful to have a bit more information.
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Belated condolences for you great loss of a much loved one. Much of the information gleaned from the internet has to been tempered with a healthy dose of sceptism. However much of the stuff in this thread come from contemporaries and colleagues of the crew of that ill fated flight. As a veteran of MAS during that period I would say that I agree that much of the details mentioned here are quite true to the best of my knowledge.
It has been almost 33 years since this tragedy; I sincerely hope that someday, someone will be brave enough to divulge some hidden information to give the affected families, closure.
It has been almost 33 years since this tragedy; I sincerely hope that someday, someone will be brave enough to divulge some hidden information to give the affected families, closure.
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Thank you
Thank you for your condolences.
Yes the hijacking happened several decades ago, nevertheless, questions persist. The tale of this hijacking seem particularly sordid, irrational, and petty. (Not that any hijacking is anything more than sordid, irrational, and petty). What I don't quite understand is why the bodyguard shot the pilots. Several media accounts state that after the pilot first called into KL to report a hijacking a tensionless conversation in the cockpit followed. Then, all of a sudden, the bodyguard shot the pilots. Why?
1. It would seem that if officials have a record of a tensionless conversation in the cockpit, then they must know exactly who the hijacker was and what it was that triggered the hijacker to kill the pilots and then himself.
2. If the conversation in the cockpit was not tensionless, but rather tension filled, officials would still have a pretty good idea of who the hijacker was and what triggered him to shoot the pilots, then himself and everyone else.
3. What did the body guard have to gain from shooting the pilots?
4. Even if the Minister of Agriculture at the time was in or about to be in political hot water, would the bodyguard's loyalty to his employer have been so broad that it would include suicide and mass murder?
5. Was suicide and mass murder the only option for a Minister in political hot water? In other words, would the alternative, facing his critics have been worse?
6. Would a bodyguard commit mass murder and suicide just because his honor was injured when his gun was put into safekeeping? The action seems a bit disproportionate to the bruised ego he sustained.
Have I got the storyline about right or am I way off the mark? Am I asking the right questions?
Thank you for your comments.
Yes the hijacking happened several decades ago, nevertheless, questions persist. The tale of this hijacking seem particularly sordid, irrational, and petty. (Not that any hijacking is anything more than sordid, irrational, and petty). What I don't quite understand is why the bodyguard shot the pilots. Several media accounts state that after the pilot first called into KL to report a hijacking a tensionless conversation in the cockpit followed. Then, all of a sudden, the bodyguard shot the pilots. Why?
1. It would seem that if officials have a record of a tensionless conversation in the cockpit, then they must know exactly who the hijacker was and what it was that triggered the hijacker to kill the pilots and then himself.
2. If the conversation in the cockpit was not tensionless, but rather tension filled, officials would still have a pretty good idea of who the hijacker was and what triggered him to shoot the pilots, then himself and everyone else.
3. What did the body guard have to gain from shooting the pilots?
4. Even if the Minister of Agriculture at the time was in or about to be in political hot water, would the bodyguard's loyalty to his employer have been so broad that it would include suicide and mass murder?
5. Was suicide and mass murder the only option for a Minister in political hot water? In other words, would the alternative, facing his critics have been worse?
6. Would a bodyguard commit mass murder and suicide just because his honor was injured when his gun was put into safekeeping? The action seems a bit disproportionate to the bruised ego he sustained.
Have I got the storyline about right or am I way off the mark? Am I asking the right questions?
Thank you for your comments.
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Yes, daughter there are a lot of unanswered questions. There people in the know who cannot reveal what they know............our SB and Police intelligience may be daft in certain matters but they do keep tabs on people who are connected to this case or even those who they think is somehow connected in this incident. You will find a lot of cagey postings here with some cryptic messages..........you know even RPK's email had been hacked and RPK has some very cyber savvy people helping him!
Now back to this tragedy. When Capt Ganjor indicated that he needed to proceed to SIN, I do not think that the Subang ATC had any idea what was happening....................hijack had never occurred in Malaysian airspace then and I don't think the authorities had any clue what was going on. They must have been very confused as the aircraft is passed over from Lumpur Approach to Lumpur Control ( southern sector ). Then, Lumpur Control would have advised SIN ATC that MH 653 was probably under duress or something strange had happened to the flight. All the radio transmissions from MH 653 to ATC and vice versa would not have remained in the CVR ( cockpit voice recorder ) as they would have been recorded over by the remaining last 30 minutes of cockpit sounds. The only records would have been ATC tapes which were never made public.
Somewhere abreast of Batu Pahat, Lumpur Control would have transferred ATC control to Singapore ATC...............this is where it probably got very nasty. SIN ATC would have told MH 653 that under no circumstances would they entertain any demands by the hijacker and I surmised that everything turned south at this juncture, dooming the flight.
Now about the agriculture minister; he was purportedly under the watchful eyes of the BPR which was quite efficient during the tenure of the then PM Hussein Onn who surely must have known that he needed to act or be stabbed by his then deputy, the snake charmer keralite. Things happened quickly affording him hardly any advanced planning; the hijacking seemed like a desperate last minute thing. Desperados do strange and inexplicable things. The rest is left for us to piece together.
Now back to this tragedy. When Capt Ganjor indicated that he needed to proceed to SIN, I do not think that the Subang ATC had any idea what was happening....................hijack had never occurred in Malaysian airspace then and I don't think the authorities had any clue what was going on. They must have been very confused as the aircraft is passed over from Lumpur Approach to Lumpur Control ( southern sector ). Then, Lumpur Control would have advised SIN ATC that MH 653 was probably under duress or something strange had happened to the flight. All the radio transmissions from MH 653 to ATC and vice versa would not have remained in the CVR ( cockpit voice recorder ) as they would have been recorded over by the remaining last 30 minutes of cockpit sounds. The only records would have been ATC tapes which were never made public.
Somewhere abreast of Batu Pahat, Lumpur Control would have transferred ATC control to Singapore ATC...............this is where it probably got very nasty. SIN ATC would have told MH 653 that under no circumstances would they entertain any demands by the hijacker and I surmised that everything turned south at this juncture, dooming the flight.
Now about the agriculture minister; he was purportedly under the watchful eyes of the BPR which was quite efficient during the tenure of the then PM Hussein Onn who surely must have known that he needed to act or be stabbed by his then deputy, the snake charmer keralite. Things happened quickly affording him hardly any advanced planning; the hijacking seemed like a desperate last minute thing. Desperados do strange and inexplicable things. The rest is left for us to piece together.
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New information? Not likely!
With the recent MACC fiasco and the pdrm behaving like establishment lapdogs I don't think anybody in the know will come forth with more info. Unless someone with nothing to lose ( death bed confession? ) or another RPK?
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Hi guys, I thought the anti hijacking stuff is done by the SAF CDO FN, an armed forces commando unit. Back in 1991 when SQ 117 was hijacked by some Pakistanis, the aircraft was stormed and all 4 hijackers killed.
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Some of you may be interested in the simulation made out in this link :
http://eprints.utm.my/343/1/Sallehud...jungKupang.pdf
http://eprints.utm.my/343/1/Sallehud...jungKupang.pdf
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Certainly look like someone was trying hard to save the plane but had no idea how to do it. Could it been a member of the cabin crew or the hijacker himself? Most lay person think that it is so easy to fly a plane; it's like a car except that you need to push, pull and steer instead of just turning a wheel. I met other professionals who wonder what it is so hard about flying!
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Pax or Cabin crew saving a doomed plane
Too many hollywood movies showing pax heroics saving the day. Too many flightsim programmes giving wannabes the thrill of flying. Before 911, too many jump seat pax who saw us seemingly doing nothing but talking about girls and golf during climb, cruise and descent!.We made it seem so easy and casual that many wondered what was so difficult about pushing, turning the wheel as well as pushing and pulling the thrust levers!