Posted on 09/13/2005 8:58:44 AM PDT by Brooklyn Kid
Hijacker in wheelchair sneaks grenades on to plane
Dan Molinski | Bogota, Colombia
Sept. 13, 2005
Colombia's government questioned its own airline security measures and ordered an immediate review after a father in a wheelchair dodged a security check to sneak hand grenades on to a plane and hijacked it along with his son.
The father and son finally surrendered five hours after commandeering the Aires airliner at about midday on Monday after it departed from the southern city of Florencia, on a flight headed to Colombia's capital, Bogota.
The plane, with at least 24 people aboard -- including an American -- landed in Bogota after the hijackers made a radio call to air-traffic control indicating they had taken control, said General Edgar Lesmez, chief of the Colombian Air Force.
The hijackers allowed government negotiators and a Roman Catholic priest to board while the twin-propeller plane sat on the tarmac. All passengers and crew were eventually freed unharmed before the hijackers, 42-year-old Porfirio Ramirez and his 22-year-old son, Linsen Ramirez, gave up and were arrested.
The older Ramirez boarded the plane in a wheelchair that was too large to pass through an airport metal detector, and he was not frisked by security agents, said Luis Octavio Rojas, director of the Florencia airport.
A statement late on Monday from President Alvaro Uribe's office said the Civil Aviation Authority must find out "what allowed someone to take advantage of his disabled condition to pass through the security checks at the Florencia airport with grenades".
Ramirez boarded with two grenades, officials close to the investigation said.
Uribe's office added: "Remember that nobody is exempt or excluded from security controls at airports."
Rojas acknowledged his airport security agents only gave the elder Ramirez "a visual inspection".
According to the government statement, the elder hijacker said he hijacked the plane to bring attention to a case in which he was partially paralysed by a police bullet during a raid on his house about 14 years ago. He had unsuccessfully sought government compensation.
Senator Carlos Moreno, who helped negotiate the stand-off, said a 100-million peso ($43 000) check was handed to the hijackers as part of a "deal" between the government and the hijackers, but the government will not honour it.
No concessions were ever made to the hijackers, the government said.
Attorney General Mario Iguaran said the elder Ramirez led the hijacking and, if convicted, faces 25 to 40 years in prison for aggravated hijacking of an aircraft. He expressed sympathy for the man's case, but added: "Unfortunately he has to be brought to justice."
The elder Ramirez, speaking to reporters before being transferred to a jail cell, said he has "no reason to regret" his actions on Monday and said that during the negotiation the government "said they would help me" and that they "would give me an indemnity, because that's what I need".
The government said on Monday it plans to review his request for compensation, but said this will not affect the severe charges he faces.
The hijacking marked the second time an Aires flight from Florencia to Bogota has been hijacked.
In February 2002, members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) hijacked an Aires flight, forced it to land on a rural highway and kidnapped a Colombian senator who was aboard.
Senator Jorge Gechen Turbay, president of the Colombian Senate's peace commission, remains a Farc hostage. The other passengers and the crew were left with the plane in that case.
The hijacking led the government to cancel peace talks with the Farc, which has been waging war in this Andean nation for four decades. -- Sapa-AP
Those GUYS! What'll they think of next!
I like the idea of shooting a hijacker on-site!
Anyone carrying hand-grenades will be viewed as a hijacker - if he isn't one - too bad for the Darwin Award nominee!
It would never happen here. Our scrupulously non discriminating TSA employees would have made the handicapped guy take off his shoes and submit to a full body search, just like every other old person who fits the nonterrorist nonprofiled standard.
Religion of Peace Alert! Damn muzzle limbs!
And I've learned here on FR that we shouldn't spend resources searching folks like this since they don't have Muslim names.
Shove a stick thru his spokes!
Yup. Round here the best chance of getting on board is to dress up like an arab with a big-ol-turbin carry the grenades in pain site on a bandolier outside your clothing while wielding a scemitar in one hand a koran in the other and shouting death to america.
Our folks will wave you right thru security for fear of being accused of being insensitive and engaging in profiling should they try to stop you......
I agree. It would put an instant end to hijackings except by moslems who want to die anyway.
Hey! since the moslems want to die anyway why can't we help them out and kill all of them now?
"can't we help them out and kill all of them now?"
Nah - that is a leftists method of settling a problem. A warning for the liberal-wing here.
When they are finished with their first enemies, they will come for those who just MAY be dangerous.
Nah - that is a leftists method of settling a problem.
Unfortunately when it comes to moslems we will be forced to kill them all eventually. Their religion commands them to be terrorists and commands them to lie to gain advantage.
The war on terror ends with the death of the last moslem
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