by Jon E. Lewis
Chapter 8
HIJACKS AND HOSTAGE RESCUE
PERSONAL SURVIVAL
You switch on the 6 o’clock news and once again you see an airliner parked at the end of a runway. It shimmers in the heat reflected from the concrete and you can see armoured cars and troops lurking by the control tower. The terrorists’ demands seem wearily familiar and there’s no comment yet from the White House. But hijacks don’t just happen to other people. One day it might be you.
You can survive some hijacks, like some ambushes, by careful planning and thinking ahead. Don’t just follow the crowd; think through your schedule, the different routes to your destination and the airlines you might fly with.
Are you a target?
The very first priority is to establish if you, or anyone you might be with, is a potential target. Remember that you are more likely to be singled out because of what you represent than who you actually are: terrorists often attack people just because of their nationality. If they simply want Western hostages, you might fit the bill very nicely just because you happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Choose your carrier
The second area of prior planning is the booking, route, carrier and seat. Make two bookings on different airlines, but only pick up one. Collect these tickets at the airport, so that your movements are known to a limited number of people. Choose an airline like Swissair or SAS which has no political associations. Some of the US carriers are obvious targets, as are Middle East airlines. Go for the neutrals – even countries with former colonial empires can be targets.
If you are flying to a potential trouble spot some airlines are noted for their high level of security – El Al insists on searches of baggage as well as electronic and body checks of passengers. It is also one of the many airlines that now operate with “sky marshals”. El Al may be a target, but it is a “hard” target.
Avoid stop overs
Try to make sure that you have a direct route with no stop-overs – this is particularly important with the Middle East. Some airports have very sloppy security, and while you may have had a thorough search when you boarded at your departure, other passengers at other stops may board less thoroughly checked.
If there is a stop-over, a walk around the terminal will get you away from the vulnerable aircraft – some terrorists have boarded aircraft disguised as cleaners during stop-overs, so a stroll reduces your chances of being caught in the hijack.
Pick your seat
Your seat could be a lifesaver – aisle seats put you within reach of the hijacker. Window seats are safer and exit seats may give you the chance to escape if the aircraft is on the runway of an airport.
“Neutral” seating in tourist class is less likely to attract attention than first class. If the terrorists wish to show their determination they may shoot hostages, and these are likely to have been chosen from passengers who are obviously important.
Be a grey person
Your dress and manner will also make you a target. In some countries blue jeans are seen as Western clothing, and so are suspect. Ex-army clothing is to be avoided, combat jackets being the most obvious. Baggage also draws attention either by its opulence or by being service issue, for example kit bags or rucksacks.
Labels should only have a business address, and the baggage should not sport hotel labels from around the world (incidentally, these precautions also reduce the chance of theft at airports). Jewellery, striking T-shirts and obvious ethnic clothing can also be a liability and reduce your ability to be the “grey man”, a neutral unnoticed among the passengers.
Finally your passport and wallet can contain a goldmine of information. Try to avoid collecting visa stamps from countries that have a terrorist problem – many countries will stamp entry and exit visas on a separate piece of paper if you ask.
Your job description can be a major liability – government or service personnel are seen as “targets” by many hijackers and natural targets for hostage executions.
Photographs of relatives and children are always worth including in your wallet/passport. You will be seen as a family man or woman with dependents and thus a less suitable person for execution. At the other extreme, the bathing-costume picture of a wife or girlfriend may cast you as a corrupt and decadent Westerner in the eyes of some hijackers.
Action
If the worst happens and you are on the aircraft that has been hijacked, follow the old army adage: “Keep your eyes open, your mouth shut and never volunteer for anything”. The last part can be modified if it allows you to escape.
As the hijack is taking place the armed men and women will be very nervous, and rapid or unexpected movements from the passengers may produce violent reactions. They may assault you, note you as a future execution victim, or kill you as a suspected sky marshal.
HOW TO AVOID AND SURVIVE A HIJACK
1. Travel with an airline that has no or few political enemies.
2. Do not wear Army or ex-Army clothing
3. Do not carry your luggage in service-issue kit bags or rucksacks
4. If the plane is hijacked keep quiet and do not draw attention to yourself.
5. Observe the terrorists’ activities very carefully: if you do escape you’ll be able to help the security forces.
By quiet observation you will be able to build up a picture of the numbers of hijackers and their mode of operation. In a large aircraft they may collect everyone together, or position themselves at different points around it to cover the passengers.
Tiredness and tension
As time passes everyone will be affected by fatigue and the need to perform bodily functions. This will increase tension and the presence of children will further aggravate this.
The hijackers will probably release women, children and elderly people if the aircraft has landed at a location where negotiations are taking place. These released passengers will be able to give details of the hijackers to the security forces, assuming that the aircraft is in a reasonable pro-Western country.
If you have a seat by the door there may be an opportunity to escape. However if you are travelling with a group this may make them potential execution victims. Note how the hijacker is armed – if he has a handgun you have a better chance of surviving, and there may even be a chance to overwhelm him.
The most dangerous situation is a group with automatic weapons and explosives. The explosives may be positioned around the aircraft, with the threat that they will be detonated if there is an attempt at rescue; and automatic weapons are notoriously inaccurate in untrained hands, and could cause casualties if a firelight with a sky marshal developed.
If there is a firelight, stay as low as possible. Window seats give better cover, though they are less easy to escape from. The sky marshal will probably have a low-velocity weapon with ammunition that will not damage the fuselage, but the hijacker may be using a 9-mm high-velocity weapon – and if this punctures the aircraft fuselage there may be decompression.
Rash rescue attempts
However, the aim of the hijacker is to get the plane to a place where the bargaining can begin. There have been examples where hastily mounted “rescue” operations have caused more casualties than were expected when the rescuers stormed the aircraft. If a rescue operation takes place the most likely course of action will be for the assault team to order the passengers to keep down. In this way they can identify the hijackers, who are likely to be on their feet in the aisle.
Your best course is to keep down and wait for the shooting to stop: the assault team will be looking for any violent or unexpected movement. They will have preceded the assault with stun grenades, and both passengers and hijackers will be suffering from temporary shock. The team will then aim to have the passengers off the aircraft as fast as possible so you should follow their instructions.
Keep cool
If, however, the aircraft arrives at a neutral or “friendly” country where the hijackers can negotiate, the advisable course is
to assess the situation. There may be friends of the hostages at the airport who will take over the negotiations with a friendly power and be more rational than the men and women who hijacked the aircraft. In this situation, a leader for the passengers may emerge; he could be the pilot or a mature and experienced passenger. Such a person will be able to make representations about the health and welfare of the passengers.
By this stage the aircraft and passengers will have become bargaining counters and their safety will be more important. Now it may be a time for patient waiting. If you find you are moved from the aircraft to hotels or holding areas, try to take some hand luggage or toiletries – there may be nothing when you arrive. Staying clean and presentable will also sustain your morale.
The inflight comforts will stop almost at once if a hijacking happens, since the stewardesses and stewards will be seen as conduits for information as they move around the aircraft. It is advisable therefore to keep hand luggage that contains simple toiletries and any medication you may need ready to hand.
For many people hijacks, like other man-made or natural disasters, are experiences that happen to other people and which are reported on the news. But they could happen to almost anyone, even if they see themselves as “Mr Average”: they may be on the flight with an important traveller, or they may just be unlucky.
SWEATING IT OUT
Some hijacks are over in hours. But others can last for days, as the aircraft is directed from international airport to international airport.
While in flight, the air conditioning will work and the physical conditions will not be too bad. On the ground however, the aircraft will be reliant on its Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) and so it can become hot and not very comfortable.
The passengers’ discomfort will be one of the bargaining counters that the hijackers will use as they talk to the control tower. Lavatories will become blocked and food will be reduced to light snacks from the galley. Though the staff at the control tower may be able to send food as the negotiations continue, this cannot be relied on. These points will help you to get through a trying and frightening time.
1. Avoid provoking the hijackers by unnecessary demands or by eye contact that may be seen as critical.
2. If you have hand luggage that can be reached without creating problems, you may be able to use your sponge bag to keep clean and refreshed.
3. Eat any snacks or sweets you have packed but avoid snacks that will make you very thirsty.
4. Try to contact your neighbours and take an interest in them. It will take your mind off your own situation and may even enable you to place some leverage on the hijackers – for instance, if your neighbour is sick or elderly he may be evacuated from the aircraft as a humane gesture.
5. Contact with your neighbours will also allow you to work out any plan of action that my present itself – thus the single hijacker may lay himself open to attack by the passengers if he turns his back on them as he moves along the aisles.
6. Avoid a rash attack on a hijacker. You may be happy to be a hero, but if you fail the attack puts everyone at risk. Random shots may penetrate the fuselage or kill or injure passengers. The hijackers may also see the whole aircraft as a threat and attempt to destroy it in revenge.
Attempts to disarm hijackers should be left to the skilled experienced and brave, not the amateur and enthusiastic.
Ever since the series of “skyjacks” in the late 1960s, anti-terrorist units have been refining a series of methods for storming a plane on the ground. It is not an easy task. The terrorists have every advantage in their favour; they usually have a clear field of view and can slaughter the passengers in a matter of moments. If you are going to make a rescue attempt it must be planned to the last detail and executed with split-second timing.
ENDING A HIJACK
In some instances hijackers have released men and women who are sick or very young or old. These people will be vital since they will give information on the hijackers’ numbers and their weapons and equipment. They will also provide more information on their level of training and motivation though some of this will have been gleaned from the conversations with the control tower.
Wear them down
You will need to know how close you can approach without alerting the hijackers. Disguise as ground crew is good cover, though ladders and weapons and equipment can be difficult to conceal. Night is the obvious time when the hijackers will be fatigued and there is reasonable cover.
If the APU (Auxiliary Power Unit) cuts out through lack of fuel, the internal lights, air conditioning and other power will cease, putting the aircraft in darkness. If the ground crew from the previous stop-over can advise on fuel states and it seems that there might be a breakdown, then an attack can be planned or the hijackers warned that the aircraft will be without power due to failure of the APU. Timing must be perfect: it was a failure to co-ordinate an APU breakdown that caused heavy casualties at Malta airport when Egyptian special forces attacked an airliner that had been hijacked.
Talking them out
The negotiating team can induce fatigue in the hijackers if they can keep them talking, although this must be balanced against the risk to the passengers, as well as their continuing discomfort. Sometimes the negotiators will be able to talk the hijackers out of the aircraft with no need to assault it, and no loss of life.
Losing patience
However, once hijackers lose patience with the negotiating team and start killing hostages to show that they mean business, then the assault team must be ready to move in fast.
Since hijackers are not likely to have weapons with rifle-calibre ammunition, your team could wear body armour, which will provide sufficient protection: the new lighter weight Kevlar armour can be worn without reducing efficiency. The use of body armour is also important for the morale of the assault team.
Weapons for the assault team
The weapons for the job can include a linear cutting tape charge, stun grenades and automatics. Linear cutting tape is a flexible metal or plastic tube with a notch running along one face and when correctly positioned, acts as a charge to cut through an aircraft fuselage to gain entry. It can be fixed magnetically or with adhesives, according to the target.
Weapons for the firefight
The handguns favoured by anti-hijack teams vary. The Delta Force in the USA originally used the venerable .45 M1919A1; the big slug will knock a man down without penetrating the aircraft fuselage. Hollow-point ammunition that flattens when it hits a target has a devastating effect on soft tissue, but will not ricochet or cause damage to internal controls and fittings in the aircraft.
New ammunition
Some new plastic ammunition will slow down after a short range, but is lethal over the short distances in which the action will take place. Automatics with large-capacity magazines like the Browning High Power will give enough ammunition for the short but violent action that will follow the entry into the aircraft. However, you should carry spare magazines where they can be quickly loaded if there is a sustained firefight.
NINE QUESTIONS THE ASSAULT TEAM MUST FACE
1 How many hijackers are there?
2 Where is each one stationed in the aircraft?
3 What are they armed with?
4 Have they prepared any explosives to destroy the aircraft?
5 How fit and motivated are the hijackers?
6 How many passengers are aboard, and what is the seating plan?
7 Can the hijackers be tricked into gathering together in the cabin for a discussion with the control tower?
8 How many entry routes does the aircraft have?
9 Can the assault team practise on a similar aircraft first?
Entering the aircraft
If the hijackers are divided, with some on the flight deck and others amongst the passengers, then you will need to attack in two teams and stage the assault so that one team fights towards the front and one towards the back of the aircraft. This way you should avoid firing into yo
ur own men. Entry must be preceded by stun grenades, which will temporarily disable the enemy but not severely injure the passengers.
Stun grenade effects
When a stun grenade explodes in a confined space like an airliner, anyone standing nearby will be completely deafened and if you are very close your eardrums will be shattered. The flash leaves you temporarily blinded and if you were looking towards it when it went off the image will be burned onto your retina for at least 10 minutes, making it very hard for you to shoot straight.
Speed means success
However the rehearsals went, you must be ready for anything when you get inside the aircraft. The hijackers may not be where you expect them, and its tempting to fight your way forward cautiously. But your attack will only succeed through speed. The volley of stun grenades and the suddenness of your assault throws the hijackers off balance and you must not give them time to recover.
Shout at the passengers to lie down. This will keep them out of the line of fire and should make the hijackers better targets. As you move through the smoke-filled aircraft hunting a handful of terrorists amongst hundreds of passengers it is horribly easy to shoot the wrong target.
Standing targets
This is the moment all your training is for, when life or death hangs on your split-second reactions. If Intelligence managed to provide you with photos of the terrorists, at least you have some means of identifying you target; if not, then you must sweep through going for anyone standing or armed.
HOSTAGE SURVIVAL
Keep low
