新西蘭英語 09 New Zealand’s First Hijack Attempt
New Zealand had its first hijack attempt on Friday when a woman tried to make the pilot of a small plane fly her to Australia. The plane was flying from Blenheim to Christchurch, a distance of 250km. It was a small plane with only 7 passengers on board and no door between the pilots and the passengers. It left Blenheim airport at 7am. The woman came up behind the pilots with a knife. The passengers and pilots tried to calm her down but she continued to stand behind the pilots and tried to stop them from landing the plane. The pilot radioed to Christchurch that someone was trying to hijack the plane. When the pilots tried to take the knife off the woman they both got cut. The captain was taken to hospital and has had an operation on his hand which was badly cut.
Police in Christchurch sent more than 10 police cars and an ambulance to the airport and the woman was arrested. The woman said that there were bombs on the plane so this meant everyone had to leave the airport and wait outside on the grass while the army searched the plane. This took 2 hours.
This happened at a very busy time of day, around 8am when many people were flying to other cities for business meetings. Some people were flying to Auckland to catch an overseas flight but they missed that flight. When the airport opened again it took a long time for people to get other bookings.
Now people are talking about security in small airports which do not have Xray. There is no security on small planes either where anyone can walk into the pilots’ cabin. If changes have to be made, this will be expensive and costs will rise. New Zealand has never had a problem like this before. The woman had been a refugee from Somalia. She came to New Zealand more than 10 years ago. She suffered many problems before she came to New Zealand and has been in trouble with the police before in this country.
