On April 7, 1994, FedEx Flight 705, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 cargo jet ferrying electronics across the United States from Memphis, Tennessee to San Jose, California, experienced an attempted hijacking for the purpose of a suicide attack.
Auburn Calloway, a FedEx employee facing possible dismissal for lying about his previous flying experience, boarded the scheduled flight as adeadheading passenger with a guitar case carrying several hammers and a speargun. He intended to disable the aircraft's cockpit voice recorderbefore take-off and, once airborne, kill the crew using the blunt force of the hammers so their injuries would appear consistent with an accident rather than a hijacking. The speargun would be a last resort. He would then crash the aircraft while just appearing to be an employee killed in an accident. This would make his family eligible for a $2.5 million life insurance policy paid by Federal Express.[1]Calloway's plan was unsuccessful. Despite severe injury, the crew was able to fight back, subdue Calloway and safely land the aircraft. An attempt at a mental health defense was unsuccessful and Calloway was subsequently convicted of multiple charges including attempted murder, attempted air piracy and interference with flight crew operations. He received two consecutive life sentences. Calloway's appeal was successful in having his conviction for interference ruled as a lesser included offense of attempted air piracy.[2] The crew was left with permanent, disabling injuries and have not flown professionally since.
There is more detail at Wikipedia, but for a better story, go to Damned Interesting.
I don't even remember this.
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3 comments:
I vaguely remember it.
I don't remember it either, but that might be because at the time I was only a year in the country and my understanding of spoken American English was practically non-existent. From TV news I was only able to glean geographical names - if the picture showed the map in the background.
Tatyana, I think we can forgive ya! ;)
It seems kinda shocking to me as much talking is done about hijackers and terrorists that this incident is never mentioned. There is practically a cult surrounding D.B. Cooper. We applaud the bravery of the passengers of Flight 93, and rightly so.
But the crew of this flight? Wow. All of 'em disqualified for flight from the injuries, and still managed to overcome the hijacker, subdue and contain him, and bring the plane down under difficult circumstances. Those guys had some nards.
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