Airborne alarms

Friday’s scare aboard a Kenya-bound British Airways jet is the latest incident at high altitude:

October 30, 2000: Two Royal Jordanian flights -– one from Amman to Abu Dhabi and the other from Amman to Qatar -– are forced to make emergency landings after a bomb hoax.

October 14, 2000: Five hijackers surrender in Baghdad, Iraq, after taking over a Saudi Air flight from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to London’s Heathrow Airport. The hijackers initially demanded that the flight, with 112 passengers, land in Damascus, Syria. The plane diverted to Baghdad after being refused permission to land in Syria.

May 25, 2000: A Philippine Airlines Airbus 330 carrying 291 people is hijacked by a man who robs everyone on board before jumping from the aircraft in a homemade parachute. The man fails to survive the jump. His body is discovered that day.

May 11, 2000: The crew of an Egypt Air Airbus 321 flight from Cairo to Aswan overpowers a man who tried to hijack the plane with a jar of hair gel.

July 1999: A pilot who overpowers a hijacker on a Nippon Airways flight from Tokyo to Sapporo dies of stab wounds incurred during the struggle.

April 1999: Six people are injured -– including a man who is slammed into the overhead lockers -– when a British Airways jumbo jet en route from Australia to Singapore runs into strong "clear air" turbulence at 30,000 feet. The plane is so violently buffeted that a number of passengers are sent flying out of their seats. Kathryn Blair, daughter of UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, is among the passengers on the flight.

Source (unless otherwise noted): Aviation Safety Network and news agencies

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