If Your Plane Was Hijacked ...

I remember reading in probably either Flying or Air Progress sometime in the late 1970s about some nut who tried to hijack a light plane to Cuba. It was an instructional flight with a student, I don't remember what kind of plane. IIRC the instructor assumed the CFI was just a passenger and made him get in the back seat. Once airborne, they flew for awhile and managed to convince the hijacker that they didn't have enough fuel to reach Cuba (which was true). They also managed to tip off ATC, so when they landed "to get fuel" the hijacker was apprehended.
 
If I wasn't in the plane, chances are excellent the hijacker couldn't start it.
If I was in the plane, unless they were very small, there is a good chance it wouldn't get off the ground. It's only got an 1,100 lb gross takeoff weight.
If we did get in the air we would only make it 160ish miles before we ran out of gas. We would be going slow enough they could follow us in a Volkswagon Beetle. One of the old style Beetles.
But I might thank them for the break in the day to day boredom.
 
Worst execution of a the Tueller drill that I've ever seen...but funny.
 
I’d remind him that killing me is killing himself, drop to 1000 ft so they have no recovery time, squawk 7500, and turn toward the big airport.
 
Dana said:
I remember reading in probably either Flying or Air Progress sometime in the late 1970s about some nut who tried to hijack a light plane to Cuba.
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There was also a case in 1991, happened to a participant in the old Usenet rec.aviation newsgroup. Greg Travis was working in his hangar and a young man with a shotgun showed up demanding to be flown away. They left, with Greg setting 7500 on his transponder.

Greg posted the details after the court case was done.

Ron Wanttaja
 
My sarcastic inner self says to open the canopy and put a little negative G on the plane and hope they miss the tail. I've watched too many 007 movies though...
 
Rich Holt said:
My sarcastic inner self says to open the canopy and put a little negative G on the plane and hope they miss the tail. I've watched too many 007 movies though...
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For those of us who don't have a canopy, we can just leave the doors off, and remove the seatbelts, then do very steep turns :)
 
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