Word: planes
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...chilling scenario -- and one that was averted only because commandos of the French gendarmerie stormed the Air France jetliner last week on the tarmac of Marseilles' Marignane Airport, killing the four hijackers in a brisk firefight and freeing the plane's 173 passengers and crew. Miraculously, none of the rescuers or hostages perished during the assault. Thirteen passengers, three crew members and nine policemen were wounded, only one seriously, in one of the most successful antiterrorist operations in aviation history...
...travelers, the wait was over all too soon. One traveler, an Algerian policeman identified during the passport check, was ordered by the hijackers to the front of the plane. Passengers heard him plead, "Don't kill . me, I have a wife and child!" The terrorists shot him in the head and dumped him outside onto a baggage cart, where he lay in agony for some time. The second victim was Bui Giang To, 48, a commercial attache at the Vietnamese embassy in Algiers. "They asked the Vietnamese man sitting in the rear to come forward," recounted one of the passengers...
...were capable of." The hijackers made certain everyone got the point by brandishing Kalashnikov assault rifles, Uzi pistols, homemade hand grenades and two packs of dynamite. Later they placed one 10-stick pack of dynamite in the cockpit and a second under a seat in the middle of the plane and linked them with detonator wire...
...government officials were also becoming increasingly concerned. Last week, after touring the muddy crash site of Flight 3379, Transportation Secretary Federico Pena said that within 100 days, tougher safety regulations for small commuter planes will be formulated. He also announced plans to bring aircraft makers, pilots and other industry members to Washington for an aviation-safety summit. Jerome Lederer, president emeritus of the Flight Safety Foundation, says the airline industry needs to take advice from people in the field: "The airlines express an interest in safety, but the guys in the shops regularly are not consulted." Other experts...
...that few passengers were canceling flights, despite their increased anxiety. Said Chicago travel agent Carol Peters: "A lot of people see these things as acts of God." But the Rev. John Peter Pham, a Catholic priest flying from Chicago to Peoria, disagreed: "I would object to blaming God for plane crashes when they are really due to human error or some other negligence...