We also heard from Stanley Gideon, the Deputy Director of Civil Aviation, who was inside the air traffic control tower as the hijacking unfolded. He noted that the tower detected the emergency at 8:17 that morning and immediately sprang into action. We’ve reported that the pilot, Howell Grange, had to deceive the hijacker into thinking they were flying to the U.S. As remarkable as that story is, it wouldn’t have been possible without the expertise and calmness displayed by the air traffic controllers. Gideon shared his perspective on the situation.
Stanley Gideon, Deputy Director of Civil Aviation
“This entire event continued to unfold and between eight seventeen and eight thirty-seven form the aircraft saying he had been hijacked and who was onboard and wanted to go to the United States, we coordinated with an aircraft in the vicinity to check with the aircraft that had the emergency and they confirmed there was a hijacking in progress. In the split moment, the pilot had the ability to speak in Spanish, because the hijacker obviously English speaking. This is where the ruse started. He asked them to please speak in Spanish. He told them to pretend that he was going through Mexico airspace on his way to the United States. And, when he got closer and the ruse is, that when they had transversed Mexican airspace to have an American voice come on. This went without a hitch. The amazing part is that ATC picked up on the pilot’s ruse and for the next hour and a half in the airspace, this aircraft, never left Belizean airspace. The pilot flew in a way to confuse the hijacker. But this was a skillful ruse between the air traffic controllers and the pilot to put this entire flight in different regions, but it stayed over Belize. That coordination cannot be matched at any level, how the pilot and the ATC worked to pull off this ruse.”
