Posted on 10/06/2001 1:56:53 PM PDT by Fighting Irish
DEMING, N.M. (AP) - Authorities were searching Saturday for a man who held a knife to the neck of a pilot and attempted to hijack a medical transport plane before fleeing a tiny airport in southern New Mexico. FBI supervisory agent Doug Beldon said Friday night's incident appeared to be isolated and unrelated to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center. No arrests have been made.
The University of New Mexico Hospital plane arrived at the Deming Municipal Airport around 9:45 p.m. to transport a baby from an area hospital. Paramedics had gone to get the child and the pilot stayed behind.
A man entered the back door of the plane and put a knife to the neck of the pilot and said, "Let's fly," Beldon said.
"It was very dark," he said. "The pilot certainly felt the knife to her neck."
The man was carrying a knife and a radio or police scanner. He was also wearing dark clothes that included a black hood with the eyes cut out.
The pilot started the King Air twin turbo-prop plane and headed down the runway when the back door opened and made a loud crashing noise. The pilot veered off the runway, Beldon said.
"Just after she veered off the runway, he struck her in the head three times with the radio device," he said. He said the man periodically repeated a word that sounded like "salama." Beldon could not identify the language of the word or give the exact spelling.
"He did speak with a foreign accent," which did not seem to be Spanish, Beldon said.
Is this a joke or what? This sounds like something out of a Woody Allen movie! I'm with the person who said they'd give the pilot a lie detector test. I'd throw in a psychological exam too. I'll be the first to apologize, but this sounds down right cockomamie.
Even if she had dents in her head?
There follows a short list of Arabic greetings and phrases. The transliterations are phonetic and intended to assist pronunciation. ..
Ma'a Salama - Goodbye
Weird thought. What if this guy was just trying to get out of dodge? Could be on the list of people who the feds want to question, and he had a notion of taking this plane, flying it really low down to the Mexican border?
How in the $#^@$#^%@ do they know it's an isolated incident? The guy appeared to be speaking in arabic, and he got away. So, they know it's isolated how? I bet the Bart Simpsons of the playground are going to start using that as a joke now. "Hey, wasn't me man, it was an isolated incident"
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