Friday's incident was well documented by video, which showed the dramatic pursuit, as well as footage from the crash site. According to the Seattle Times, the hijacking was “not a terrorist incident,” but a case involving a 29-year-old Pierce county resident and Horizon Air mechanic with “suicidal” intentions. The Bombardier Dash 8 Q400, with no one other than its hijacker pilot on board, crashed on Ketron Island, a sparsely populated island about 40 km southwest of Seattle. No other victims were reported.
Hijacking at the Dawn of the Aviation Age
Skyjackings started not long after commercial aviation itself began gaining acceptance. On September 25, 1932, in one of the earliest reported hijacking incidents in aviation history, a Panair do Brasil Sikorsky S-38 seaplane was hijacked by three men opposed to the Brazilian coup of 1930, who took a company employee hostage and managed to take off despite the fact that none of the men knew how to fly a plane. Following a short flight, the commandeered aircraft crashed in the city of Sao Joao de Meriti, killing everyone onboard.
Skyjacking Where the Hijacker Became the Sole Survivor
On July 16, 1948, a Cathay Pacific Airways PBY Catalina flying boat was hijacked during a flight between Macau and Hong Kong, with the incident often described as the first-ever proper commercial skyjacking. The plane was taken over by a four-man gang, who planned to force it down in a remote location and hold its…
