Police capture hijacked plane

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33532, 13 May 1974, Page 13

Police capture hijacked plane

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright)

BOGOTA, May 12. One hijacker was shot dead, his tao companions were captured, and another eight persons were injured when police stormed a hijacked airliner in Bogota last night.

Five policemen disguised I as mechanics rushed the j Colombian Boeing 727 with 92 people aboard 17 hours after it was seized on a | domestic flight by the three! hijackers, who were armed; with pistols, hand-grenades,, and dynamite. A policeman and three other persons were hit by bullets inside the aircraft at the El Dorado Airport, Bogota. Another policeman was stabbed in the face and leg as he grappled with a hijacker, and three persons were injured diving out of the airliner to escape the gunfire. The two surviving hijackers, who had demanded a ransom of about $NZ240.000 for the passengers after I changing their minds about'

| flying to Cuba, were both slightly injured. j The dead hijacker was j identified as Carlos Arturo [Tabares, aged 25. a farm worker. He was hit by [several bullets. [ The police said that Taibares was killed when CapI tain Augusto Garcia (one of the boarding party), drew a . pistol hidden in a flight , manual and fired when hijackers searched him at the rear entrance of the Avianca ■ Airlines airliner. ; Captain Garcia suffered > I stab wounds as he wrestled ; I with the second hijacker. On the flight deck, the re- ; placement commander of the aircraft, Captain Alejandro i Moreno, who had called in the “mechanics” to repair a supposed fault according to a prearranged plan, subdued the third hijacker with karate I chops and the help of other disguised police.