Former pilot, flight attendant remember...A madman's attempt to shutdown a flying aircraft
Dublin Core
Title
Former pilot, flight attendant remember...A madman's attempt to shutdown a flying aircraft
Subject
Flight attendants
Airplane pilots
Description
Interview with a BWIA pilot and flight attendant
Creator
Angela Pidduck
Publisher
Daily News Limited
Date
2001-01-14
Format
PDF
600dpi
Type
Text
Image
Still Image
Coverage
Trinidad and Tobago
Text Item Type Metadata
Text
NEWSDA Y Sunday January 14, 2001 Page 51 Former pilot, flight attendant remember ... By ANGELA PIDDUCK
A FORMER BWIA pilot and flight attendant last week related a harrowing experience they had many years ago similar to that aboard a Kenyan Airlines flight in which a recent attempt was made to endanger the lives of passengers.
Charlene Salazar, and former BWIA pilot, Ralph Thompson, told me about their experience on board BWIA 400 to Miami in August 1968, when 43-year-old James Summer Pinckney of Hollis, New York, attempted to shut down the aircraft as it was descending into Miami airport. A similar incident recently occurred as a Kenya Airlines flight was descending into Nairobi. In both instances, hijacking did not appear to be the intent.
According to Salazar, a senior flight attendant who was working first class with the late Jenny Gibbs as purser at the time of the incident: "We had landed in Kingston on a B-727 aircraft en route to Miami via Barbados, Antigua, Kingston and Montego Bay. A man who boarded in Kingston and was seated in the forward section behind the six first class rows kept stopping Jenny or myself between Kingston and MoBay and telling us he wants to see the Captain, who was Nick Percival.
"We sort of put him off telling him he couldn't see the Captain and he started getting out of his seat and behaving in an erratic manner."
On landing in Montego Bay, Salazar went into the cockpit and told Captain Percival (now deceased) about the man's erratic and very strange behaviour whereupon First Officer Ralph Thompson walked down the aisle and spoke to the man. "I asked him to come up to the front so we could find out what was bothering him, whether it was something to do with the traffic staff, or maybe the service on the aircraft and his reply was; "This god dammed aeroplane will never get to Miami."
"We the crew felt up to this day that the Captain should have listened and put the man off in Mobay when Ralph asked him to do that" says Salazar. Instead Percival's reply, says Thompson was "There is one on every flight, don't bother about him he will settle down."
About 15 minutes out of Miami as the flight attendants busily cleared up for landing, Salazar suddenly realised that Pinckney was not sitting in his seat, walked up to the cockpit with Gibbs and tried the door which was being forcibly held shut.
"Within seconds the plane just started to dive, the door flew open, sort of knocking us both back into first class, Mike Rezende, the pilot engineer and Captain Percival had the man halfway out of the cockpit while Ralph kept control of the plane" says Salazar.
Inside the cockpit, says Thompson "When he walked in I keyed the intercom where I could talk to Nick without him hearing and told him the man who was giving trouble behind is now in the cockpit. We had already been cleared to descend to 6,000 feet.
"The Captain asked him please to leave as he was not invited into the cockpit and we were on approach to landing. Having been an Eastern Airlines ground engineer, the man grabbed the throttles and closed them, there was a deathly hush. I reopened, and moved away his hand as he reached for the start levers because that would have been like turning off the switch key in a car. Had he achieved shutting down the engines there was no way we could restart at 6,000 feet. We would have gone down into the Everglades for sure."
Eventually the Captain and Flight Engineer forced the man into First Class where he was tied with his hands behind his back with help from the passengers, Salazar sat on his chest and was held in place by the passengers until Thompson landed the aircraft.
In the melee, Captain Percival twisted his ankle between the seat and console; First Officer Thompson's shoulder was temporarily dislocated as he pushed Pinckney's hands away from the start levers; while Pilot Engineer Rezende sprained his wrist.
Left alone at the controls, Thompson explained to Miami tower that there was a crazy man in the cockpit trying to shut down the airplane, and was given clearance to land and bring the airplane to an immediate stop and lower the aft airstairs which would get security on board to apprehend the man. Salazar remembers "there were police all over Miami airport and the crew were all separated and interviewed individually."
The next day, says Thompson, "We operated BW 401, on time, back to Port-of-Spain, in spite of our injuries. To this day there has never been a company enquiry as to what took place so that it may not happen again. "BWIA displayed absolutely no interest whatsoever as to what happened although we submitted a written report of the incident.
“And the crew never received either a letter of commendation or acknowledgment."
A FORMER BWIA pilot and flight attendant last week related a harrowing experience they had many years ago similar to that aboard a Kenyan Airlines flight in which a recent attempt was made to endanger the lives of passengers.
Charlene Salazar, and former BWIA pilot, Ralph Thompson, told me about their experience on board BWIA 400 to Miami in August 1968, when 43-year-old James Summer Pinckney of Hollis, New York, attempted to shut down the aircraft as it was descending into Miami airport. A similar incident recently occurred as a Kenya Airlines flight was descending into Nairobi. In both instances, hijacking did not appear to be the intent.
According to Salazar, a senior flight attendant who was working first class with the late Jenny Gibbs as purser at the time of the incident: "We had landed in Kingston on a B-727 aircraft en route to Miami via Barbados, Antigua, Kingston and Montego Bay. A man who boarded in Kingston and was seated in the forward section behind the six first class rows kept stopping Jenny or myself between Kingston and MoBay and telling us he wants to see the Captain, who was Nick Percival.
"We sort of put him off telling him he couldn't see the Captain and he started getting out of his seat and behaving in an erratic manner."
On landing in Montego Bay, Salazar went into the cockpit and told Captain Percival (now deceased) about the man's erratic and very strange behaviour whereupon First Officer Ralph Thompson walked down the aisle and spoke to the man. "I asked him to come up to the front so we could find out what was bothering him, whether it was something to do with the traffic staff, or maybe the service on the aircraft and his reply was; "This god dammed aeroplane will never get to Miami."
"We the crew felt up to this day that the Captain should have listened and put the man off in Mobay when Ralph asked him to do that" says Salazar. Instead Percival's reply, says Thompson was "There is one on every flight, don't bother about him he will settle down."
About 15 minutes out of Miami as the flight attendants busily cleared up for landing, Salazar suddenly realised that Pinckney was not sitting in his seat, walked up to the cockpit with Gibbs and tried the door which was being forcibly held shut.
"Within seconds the plane just started to dive, the door flew open, sort of knocking us both back into first class, Mike Rezende, the pilot engineer and Captain Percival had the man halfway out of the cockpit while Ralph kept control of the plane" says Salazar.
Inside the cockpit, says Thompson "When he walked in I keyed the intercom where I could talk to Nick without him hearing and told him the man who was giving trouble behind is now in the cockpit. We had already been cleared to descend to 6,000 feet.
"The Captain asked him please to leave as he was not invited into the cockpit and we were on approach to landing. Having been an Eastern Airlines ground engineer, the man grabbed the throttles and closed them, there was a deathly hush. I reopened, and moved away his hand as he reached for the start levers because that would have been like turning off the switch key in a car. Had he achieved shutting down the engines there was no way we could restart at 6,000 feet. We would have gone down into the Everglades for sure."
Eventually the Captain and Flight Engineer forced the man into First Class where he was tied with his hands behind his back with help from the passengers, Salazar sat on his chest and was held in place by the passengers until Thompson landed the aircraft.
In the melee, Captain Percival twisted his ankle between the seat and console; First Officer Thompson's shoulder was temporarily dislocated as he pushed Pinckney's hands away from the start levers; while Pilot Engineer Rezende sprained his wrist.
Left alone at the controls, Thompson explained to Miami tower that there was a crazy man in the cockpit trying to shut down the airplane, and was given clearance to land and bring the airplane to an immediate stop and lower the aft airstairs which would get security on board to apprehend the man. Salazar remembers "there were police all over Miami airport and the crew were all separated and interviewed individually."
The next day, says Thompson, "We operated BW 401, on time, back to Port-of-Spain, in spite of our injuries. To this day there has never been a company enquiry as to what took place so that it may not happen again. "BWIA displayed absolutely no interest whatsoever as to what happened although we submitted a written report of the incident.
“And the crew never received either a letter of commendation or acknowledgment."
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Citation
Angela Pidduck, “Former pilot, flight attendant remember...A madman's attempt to shutdown a flying aircraft,” Angela Pidduck's Writings, accessed May 18, 2024, https://angelapidduck.omeka.net/items/show/68.