A US resident stabbed two people and the aircraft in a mid-air strike on a private flight in Belize on Friday.
Authorities in Belize and the United States confirmed that one of the victims, despite suffering serious injury, managed to tragically shot the perpetrator in midair.
Authorities claimed there could have been a large number of casualties when the plane later made an emergency landing.
14 people and two crew members were aboard the Tropic Air trip when the kidnapping took place, according to NYT, and it was departing from Corozal, a smaller town close to Belize’s north border with Mexico.
Before finally landing in Ladyville, escorted by a policeman aircraft, the aeroplane veered off course and flew wildly for nearly two hours.
Around 8:30 am native time, according to a declaration from the Belize Airport Concession Company, the whole incident was declared shortly after the incident began.
Our captain acted with amazing courage and calm, leading the plane to a safe landing, in the face of inexplicable pressure. His actions were little short of heroic, according to Maximillian Greif, CEO of Tropic Air.
The two stabbed people, the captain and the two who were stabbed, were taken to a doctor. One of the customers is now in critical condition, despite the fact that their wounds were described as severe but bearable.
The hijack was who?
Akinyela Sawa Taylor, a US resident and military senior, was the hijack, according to Belize Police Commissioner Chester Williams. Taylor’s senior status cannot be confirmed, according to US officials.
Williams claims that Taylor demanded that the aircraft reroute, occasionally asking to get flown to Mexico, and occasionally insisting that it land in order to refuel. He stabbed the captain and two people during the fight. Fitzgerald Brown, one of the passengers, was stabbed in the back and had a punctured lung, but he was still able to pull a certified gun. Taylor was fatally shot inside the plane by Brown. He later gave the tool back to the authorities.
Williams told reporters,” We are praying for him. ” He’s our hero”.
According to a Tropic Air standard who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, the other wounded passenger was identified as Jair Castaeda and the wounded captain as He Grange. Brown and Castaeda’s cultures have not yet been revealed.
US State Department spokesman Tammy Bruce praised the passengers and crew at a press presentation in Washington and described the takeover as “horrifying.”
We are pleased that there weren’t “more than a few people on the plane,” according to Bruce, who believes everyone in the group is. We are certain we have a few particulars, obviously. We are not very knowledgeable anymore.
Taylor had requested to get flown back to the United States during the struggle, according to Luke Martin, a spokesperson for the US Embassy in Belize. We are unsure as to why he wanted to return to the United States, Martin said.
Authorities in both nations said investigations are ongoing, and the cause behind the kidnapping is still undetermined.
