Posted on 09/30/2004 2:42:32 PM PDT by swilhelm73
OSLO (AFP) - A seemingly unstable passenger attacked two pilots aboard a Norwegian passenger plane with an axe but the aircraft was later able to land, amid concerns over lax security on the country's local flights and at regional airports.
AFP/Scanpix Photo
Just minutes before the plane, a small Dornier 228, was scheduled to land in the northern Norwegian town of Bodoe at 10:50 a.m. (0850 GMT), one of the seven passengers onboard walked towards the cockpit, and suddenly attacked both the pilot and the co-pilot with an axe in an apparent bid to crash the aircraft.
"According to testimony from other passengers the man clearly intended to make the plane crash," deputy chief of police in Bodoe Tone Vangen told reporters.
"We should feel lucky that the outcome was not more serious," she added.
The Kato Airlines plane linking the two northern towns of Narvik and Bodoe dived to an altitude of 100 feet (30 meters) during the attack before two the pilots, assisted by two passengers, tackled him and straightened the craft back up.
Both pilots and one of the passengers, who are all between 30 and 45 years old, suffered "light head injuries" during the attack, the local Bodoe hospital said in a statement, adding that "their conditions are stable".
Shortly after the plane finally landed in Bodoe, police arrested the man, discovering a box-cutter in his pocket. Military sniffer dogs were then sent in to search the plane.
"He is from Algeria. He was born in 1970. This is an asylum-seeker who has been turned down ... As far as we can tell he is psychologically unstable," Vangen said, adding that the attacker had not spoken since his arrest and that he would soon undergo a medical examination.
Police first suspected that the man had used a security hatchet already onboard the plane in the attack, but by Wednesday afternoon it was clear that he had smuggled an axe onto the plane with him.
"At first we thought that it was the hatchet onboard but we are no longer of this opinion because that hatchet is still in its place in the cockpit," Vangen said.
According to Nils Rognli, who heads up the Narvik airport for the Norwegian civil aviation authority Avinor, it would not have been difficult for the attacker to smuggle an axe onto the plane.
"It would be very simple since we don't have any security control here in Narvik," he told AFP.
We have "the good, old fashioned system as it was in the past where you just get on the plane", he added, pointing out that he has the equipment needed for security screening, but that it has not yet been installed.
Starting on January 1 next year, all of Norway's airports, including Narvik, will in accordance with a European directive be required to use metal detectors to screen all passengers and all carry-on luggage.
According to Kato Airline chief Oerjan Nyborg there were no alerts to any incidents on the flight before the attack.
"The first message we received was after the plane had landed," he said.
Kato Airline, which services two regional routes in Norway, suspended all of its flights for the remainder of the day.
One less registered Democrat to vote on November 2...
You think?
Looks like Norway is going to have to get serious about security at airports and everywhere else. Unimaginable that this crazed Algerian could smuggle an axe and box cutters onto the plane, but the authorities are probably so politically sensitive, they wouldn't want to frisk him if they were sticking out of his pocket.
Anybody surprised?
Yet another act of Mohammedan terrorism.
I'm sure it will be excused, because Bush has made so many
Mohammedans mad.
Another Sigrid Undset fan heard from.
I think I heard earlier that he used the aircraft crash axe. But how did he get onboard with a box cutter? Sheesh!
It wouldn't surprise me if the Norweigans reversed themselves and granted this loon asylum on the grounds he is "mentally unstable". Its hard to believe that these are the descendants of the Norsemen.
"He is from Algeria. He was born in 1970. This is an asylum-seeker who has been turned down. As far as we can tell he is psychologically unstable."
Gee -- profiling is SUCH a bad idea.
Amazing the lengths these reporters will go to avoid specific mention of what is obvious to us all.
ping
He's been playing the latest Cat Stevens hit single: "Allah Akhbar on a jetplane" too many times, before boarding on the plane!
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