Barry Hicks
7th July 2008, 08:37 AM
The most amazing flying story I've ever heard happened
about five years ago somewhere in South America.
A hijacker smashed his way onto the flight deck, killed
both the pilots and then turned the gun on himself.
So now you had a large passenger jet flying at 40,000
feet and nobody on board capable of landing the thing.
But then this 8 y.o. kid calmly got up from his seat,
walked to the flight deck and offered to take over. He
said he'd always been keen on aircraft and had read lots
of books and even had a jumbo jet computer game.
So what else could they do? They pulled the bodies
of the two pilots out of the way, sat the kid at the
controls, and above all the hysterical screaming,
he managed to get in touch with with the control tower.
He told them he didn't want to be told how to fly the
plane, he just wanted to know where the nearest
airfield was and what the weather conditions were.
He then took the plane off auto pilot, ordered everyone
off the flight deck and, with incredible self control for
an 8 y.o. managed to guide that plane and it's load
of terrified passengers - straight into the side of a
mountain.
about five years ago somewhere in South America.
A hijacker smashed his way onto the flight deck, killed
both the pilots and then turned the gun on himself.
So now you had a large passenger jet flying at 40,000
feet and nobody on board capable of landing the thing.
But then this 8 y.o. kid calmly got up from his seat,
walked to the flight deck and offered to take over. He
said he'd always been keen on aircraft and had read lots
of books and even had a jumbo jet computer game.
So what else could they do? They pulled the bodies
of the two pilots out of the way, sat the kid at the
controls, and above all the hysterical screaming,
he managed to get in touch with with the control tower.
He told them he didn't want to be told how to fly the
plane, he just wanted to know where the nearest
airfield was and what the weather conditions were.
He then took the plane off auto pilot, ordered everyone
off the flight deck and, with incredible self control for
an 8 y.o. managed to guide that plane and it's load
of terrified passengers - straight into the side of a
mountain.