One man with a gun can do a lot of damage. A weapon-wielding nut-job held around 180 hostages on a Canadian plane in Jamaica yesterday. He chose the landing in Jamaica as his time to act. All passengers were eventually released unharmed, but five of the original seven crew members were still held hostage in the CanJet plane at Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay. (CNN reports that he’s holding six crew members.)
Only one shot has been fired, but nobody was hurt.
According to a story in the Sydney Morning Herald, “It’s likely that two of the crew members may be locked up in the cockpit.”
CanJet says in a statement on its website, “A full security operation is underway and CanJet is cooperating fully with the local authorities.”
At approximately 11:30 PM local time yesterday, a man found his way onto chartered Flight 918, thanks to the effectiveness of fake identification cards at the airport’s employee entrance.
The latest development is that police are negotiating with the hostage-taker. He has asked for passage to Cuba.