To some extent this is a Stupid Terrorist story, but also a pretty smart -- and gutsy -- move by a pilot who thwarted a hijacking. Somehow a passenger on an Air Mauritania flight managed to board the 737 with two loaded handguns, seized the jet soon after takeoff, and demanded to be flown to France to seek asylum. Leaving aside the dubious efficacy of acquiring asylum through hijacking a plane, this particular Francophile apparently didn't speak French.
The pilot apparently realized this at some point during the event and had the presence of mind to craft a plan and then announce it over the loudspeaker in French so everyone on the plane (except our intrepid asylum-seeker) knew what would happen:
"The pilot and his colleagues decided to abruptly apply brakes on landing to throw off-balance the hijacker, who was hurled to the floor by the jerk and was quickly overpowered before being handed over to the Spanish police force," a Mauritanian official told AFP news agency . . . [The pilot] used the plane's intercom system to tell passengers in French of his plan.The pilot even urged crew members and men to sit in the front rows, ready to act, while asking women and children to move to the rear of the plane.
I'm a little surprised this wasn't a bigger story -- I understand the news tends to focus on results, rather than the events that precede them, but to be fair, this could have ended much, much worse. But it didn't, and the actual result was good (heroic and mildly funny, even!), so just another footnote of global vulnerability buried under the weight of Iraq.
