Two pilots were wounded by a
woman in an attempt to hijack a regional domestic flight in New Zealand
Friday, the Associated Press reports.
The woman was carrying a knife
and stabbed the two pilots, and also threatened to blow up the 19-seat
Jetstream J32, which had on board four New Zealanders, an Australian and an
Indian national, and was traveling from the provincial town of Blenheim
to Christchurch.
Apparently the woman wanted to go
to Australia,
which was not in the Jetstream aircraft’s range.
The two wounded pilots managed to land the plane
safely in Christchurch.
Police arrested the woman on the airport runway and evacuated the six
passengers.
Christchurch
police Commander Dave Cliff said that the attacker claimed that there were two
bombs on the plane. The police officers searched the plane and the luggage, but
found no explosives. The airport was closed for nearly three hours.
One of the pilots had severe cuts
to the hand, while the other one had wounds to the foot, Cliff said. A
passenger who intervened was slightly wounded.
The 33-year-old woman, who was
not named by the police, is originally from Somalia. She was charged with
attempted hijacking, wounding and other offences, the Associated Press reports,
and she will appear in court in Christchurch
on Saturday, police says. In New
Zealand the maximum sentence for hijacking
is life imprisonment.
According to the Guardian
Unlimited, a taxi driver, who took the woman to the airport in Blenheim, from which the
aircraft took off, told Newstalk ZB,
that “She was very nervous, very unsure of where she wanted to go for a while
and what she wanted to do. It was a very strange ride.”
AFP reports that Air New Zealand said
in a statement soon after the incident that it would review its security
system.
“Today's incident, although a
one-off, has naturally given us cause to conduct a thorough review of our
safety and security systems and processes on regional domestic flights,” said
Air New Zealand's general manager of short-haul
airlines, Bruce Parton.