The big news in New Zealand today was the attempted hijacking of a small Air NZ flight from Blenheim to Christchurch, allegedly by a 33-year old Somali refugee who claimed she had a bomb and demanded to be taken to Australia before attacking the pilots with a knife, causing minor injuries. The taxi driver who took her to the airport said she seemed confused, and it appears that she had mental problems rather than sinister intent.
Predictably there have been calls for increased security – surely an overreaction, it is not unusual for there to be no screening of passengers on aircraft with fewer than 90 seats, because the risk is so low.
It is interesting to see again how vulnerable air transport is to disruption. In this case Christchurch airport was evacuated, there were contradictory reports to affected passengers, and to make things worse, Air New Zealand’s computer systems crashed when passengers finally returned to the terminal and rushed to check in.
There have been suggestions that this is the first incident of this kind in New Zealand (because of course we live in a benign strategic environment where domestic terrorism is unheard of). This is not true. An aircraft squawked 7500 in 1995. I only know this because I used to live in Stratford, where I met Steve, one of the hostages, who described the entire incident in detail. Otherwise I would never have heard of it.
Steve was interviewed in the Dominion, 31st October 1995:
ARMED police began searching for a man with five guns in rugged country in Tongariro National Park last night after he had earlier hijacked a helicopter and taken two hostages.
Police named the fugitive as Chris Short, 37, of Taupo.[. . .]
At 1.30pm yesterday Mr Short, carrying five guns, climbed out of a car at Mangatepopo, near State Highway 47 (the National Park to Taupo highway), and ordered pilot Tony Brice from Eltham’s Beck Helicopters to fly him to Mt Tongariro, Mr Warne said.
Neither of two Beck Helicopters workers taken hostage in the helicopter, or a third man left near Mangatepopo, were harmed.
Steve Beck, one of the hostages, said from the Stratford home of Mr Brice last night that Mr Short had set himself up on a strategic part of the mountain with 1000 metres of visibility in all directions. Mr Beck said he thought Mr Short had two sawn-off shotguns, a .22 magnum rifle with a scope, a .303, and another high-powered rifle and a back-pack of ammunition.
“It’ll be an uphill battle for anyone who tries to go in there. It’s all steep faces, open ground and tussock,” Mr Beck said.
He estimated Mr Short was at about 4900 metres altitude. He said he looked as though he was prepared to stay on the mountain for some time. He described him as rational and dedicated to his cause, stopping 1080 poisoning in the Taurewa forest.
“We thought he was joking till he pointed two sawn-off shotguns at us and said this is a hold-up,” Mr Beck said. “Then we thought he was after our money but he was protesting against 1080 poisoning.”
[. . . ]
Mr Brice said he had pretended he was not the helicopter pilot, but Mr Short recognised his uniform. Then Mr Brice said he couldn’t fly because there was too much cloud but Mr Short pointed the gun at him and made him fly anyway.
[. . . ]
Mr Short asked for nothing but the helicopter cellphone, which they gave him, with a spare battery. After sharing a cup of tea with Mr Short, the two men flew back to safety and alerted the police.
And from 4th November:
HIJACKING a helicopter had wrecked his family’s life but lifted a huge weight off his back, gunman Chris Short said yesterday.
He walked into Taupo police station at midday yesterday. His surrender ended four days of drama after Short, 37, a Taupo butcher, forced the helicopter crew to fly to Mt Tongariro on Monday.
He appeared in Taupo District Court yesterday on two counts of kidnapping, one of armed robbery for taking a cellphone from the helicopter crew, and possession of a firearm for an unlawful purpose.
For some reason the late, former Labour cabinet minister Trevor de Cleene accompanied Short to the station. I hear these days Short is known as an accomplished bowhunter. I suspect that might have something to do with his firearms license being revoked after that helicopter stunt.
It does show how strongly some people feel about seemingly minor issues like 1080. The controversy has led to violence and civil disobedience in rural parts of NZ more than once.
