MIGRANT FACES CHARGES
Threat To Blow Up Plane .2.. Press Association—Copyright) BRISBANE, August 23. The co-pilot of a TransAustralia Airlines Electra airliner told the Brisbane Police Court today how he and another pilot grappled with and overpowered a man who threatened to blow up the plane, carrying 50 passengers, with gelignite, on the night of July 19. The co-pilot, First Officer Thomas Ross Bennett, said the man held a gun in one hand, held wires attached to two sticks of gelignite in his other hand, and said: “We must not land in Brisbane. I have nothing to lose. If you don’t do as I say I will blow us all up.”
Before the Court was Alex Hilderbrandt, aged 22, a Ukrainian migrant from Sydney. The struggle took place as the airliner, carrying 43 passengers and a crew of seven, neared Brisbane on a flight from Sydney. Hildebrandt was charged today with having put explosives in the plane with intent to destroy it; tried to kill the co-pilot, Thomas Ross Bennett; gone armed in public in such a manner as to cause terror; had explosives in his possession unlawfully; had an unlicensed concealable weapon in his possession.
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Bibliographic details
Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29292, 25 August 1960, Page 21
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196MIGRANT FACES CHARGES Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29292, 25 August 1960, Page 21
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