AeroMexico plane hijacking resolved peacefully

Shortly after taking off from Cancun on Wednesday, the pilots of AeroMexico flight 737 radioed the control tower to say the plane had been hijacked. The hijacker had showed off a bomb (later found to be fake) and demanded to speak to Mexican President Felipe Calderon. He threatened to blow up the plane, which was carrying over 100 people, and said he needed to warn the President of an impending earthquake.

The hijacker was unable to get into the cockpit, and the plane landed safely in Mexico City, its intended destination. After the plane landed and taxied to a part of the runway designated for emergencies, passengers deplaned, and security forces boarded. They quickly apprehended who they thought were the nine hijackers, but it later became clear that there was only one, Bolivian-born Jose Flores, 44, who told police he was a Protestant Minister and that “it was a divine revelation that made him carry out his actions.” The other suspects, innocent passengers caught up in the confusion, were released.

Most of the passengers had no idea that the hijacking was even taking place until it was over, and no one was injured in the incident. This was Mexico‘s first major hijacking situation since 1972.

[via Washington Post]

Crazy man with wires and batteries shuts down LaGuardia airport terminal

Early this morning, a man approached the airport security checkpoint at LaGuardia, and 10 minutes later the central terminal was shut down to passengers and all air traffic.

What happened in those 10 minutes is not entirely clear, but initial reports claim the man was “acting really crazy” and had some wires and batteries in his bag. I’ll go out on a limb here and assume the guy was indeed crazy, and had something in his bag that looked like bomb parts.

As soon as the “bomb” was detected, the evacuation started.

Flights heading to LaGuardia were diverted, and as of right now (9:30am), the airport is still under a ground stop, though passengers are being allowed back into the terminal buildings.

Many flights in and out of the airport are delayed by up to 3 hours, so if you are heading to LGA today, keep an eye on any announcements or flight status notifications from your airline.