Dramatic Footage of Aftermath of BA Hijack in 2000

An interesting article in the Telegraph, about the attempted hijacking incident on a Gatwick-based BA 747 circa 2000, with footage not previously released:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newsvideo/9166820/Aftermath-of-attempted-British-Airways-hijacking-caught-on-video.html

This occured before the advent of 9/11 and increased cockpit security. Happened over Kenya, I think, and was seen off by the Captain intervening from his rest bunk.

He is featured in the video, and looks very calm after what must have been a shocking event. The aircraft fell 10,000 feet and was at serious risk of breaking up.

Apparently, the pilot was former RAF, and his knowledge of recovering aircraft from such dives was invaluable.

Shows the old Club World Cradle Seats in the Upper Deck.

I think the report is remarkable in that it has been kept under wraps for so long. I have just goggled the incident and whilst there are reports, there is not much about it.

The capt has to look and act cool because otherwise it would be worse for all pax. I wonder how much combat training they give cabin and flight crew these days to handle situations like this? x

Amazing footage, looking back, it is hard to believe the flight deck door was rarely locked, I feel so much safer now having the door reinforced and always locked, with cameras to identify the crew. An Extremely traumatic event for the passengers and crew, it was a VERY close call that day, the captain’s flying skills saved the day!

I am not sure that pilot training involves techniques in wrestling nutters to the ground, but do know that the commander of the aircraft in question was a keen rugby player, which I suspect helped a lot.

I was on this flight and the skills and poise of the pilots were life saving. What I recall him saying in a completely out of breath,had just been in a fight for his and all our lives, was ‘a mad man had tried to crash the plane, he has been restrained, everything will be ok’. As I was seated in the main cabin -this was our first information of what had happened – we had not known it had been highjacked and I assumed engine failure. In this very short phrase the pilot showed incredible presence of mind and communicated everything we needed to know at that time. It is impossible to thank this man for saving our lives. I learned a lot from this video and now over a decade later, I am able to share it with my daughter who was only 5yrs old (and thankfully not with me) at the time. What I’ve remembered in terms of flying is the strength and abilities of an aircraft in the most turbulent and violent of conditions. If it is possible and you have the skills of these pilots, an aircraft can pull out of some incredibly dire situations. I was there and while long ago, I will never forget those moments. Thank you for sharing this video.

timothy222 – 09/01/2013 17:07 GMT
If true, is it really appropriate to put airline security training and policy into the public domain. When the press ask security questions to airlines, airports etc then spokespeople often reply along the lines of “We don’t comment on our security policy”, to avoid giving insights to those people who may be looking to misuse such information.

I would prefer not to know how crew have been trained, or not trained, to react to a hijacking. If I know then a potential hijacker could know too.