Entries for the Tag:Canada
Armed Man Holds Air Crew Hostage
An armed man, described as “mentally challenged,” took six crew members hostage after he barged onto a passenger jet at a Jamaican airport Monday and demanded to be flown to Cuba. [caption id=“attachment_278” align=“alignright” width=“219” caption=“Hostage-taker commandeered a CanJet flight in Montego Bay, Jamaica”]
[/caption]A hostage-taker commandeered a CanJet flight at Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay, Jamaica. The gunman, believed to be in his early 20s, released all passengers and two members of the crew from the CanJet plane but negotiations continued Monday morning at Sangster International Airport in the resort city of Montego Bay to secure the remaining crew members’ release.“The hijacking is that from a mentally challenged youngster and not anything that would be of concern in terms of an international incident,” said Jamaica’s Information Minister Daryl Vaz.
“His demand was to go to Cuba,” he said. CanJet Airlines flight 918 was carrying 174 passengers and eight crew members, said Kent Woodside, the airline’s vice president. All the passengers are Canadian, he said. The Boeing 737 flew in from Halifax, Canada, and had made a scheduled landing at Montego Bay, when the armed man boarded the plane late Sunday, the airline said. It was scheduled to continue on to Santa Clara, Cuba. The gunman fired a shot in the boarding bridge to the plane as he entered, Woodside said. He then took an undisclosed number of passengers and crew members hostage, said Elizabeth Scotton, a spokeswoman for the company that manages the airport.
***This episode, certainly unsettling to the passengers, serves as a reminder of a key advantage of flying privately. Namely, the inherent security of knowing that everyone on board the aircraft has been checked against the TSA’s No-Fly list and that you will personally know each person with whom you are flying. Additionally, when it comes to safely evacuating an area due to any political or social unrest or idustrial/natural disaster use of a Gulfstream or Hawker jet can become a case of life or death. With emergency evacuation procedures in place, your employees or loved ones can be free from danger with as little as 4 hours notice.