Newsgroups: rec.aviation Path: mythinc!moon!pixar!uupsi!psinntp!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!bronze!greg From: greg@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu (Gregory R. TRAVIS) Subject: 57E squawks Hijack, part 3 Message-ID: <1992Apr15.171000.29393@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu> Keywords: AFTERMATH Organization: Indiana University Date: Wed, 15 Apr 92 17:10:00 GMT Lines: 75 Some random thoughts about the whole thing: 1. Were there things I could have done differently? Certainly. First of all I probably should never have divulged that I was a pilot. But at the time I did, I did not believe I was going to be hijacked. It was also very difficult to determine WHAT to do. Things seemed to lurch from one situation to another - I'll wax poetic and say I was just a passenger on the train of destiny. *urp* People kept coming up to me and telling me how well I handled the situation. Well, I don't see it that way at all. There just were not THAT MANY CHOICES to be made. Like an engine failure at night in IMC, you just don't have a whole lot of options. Conversely, you don't have a lot of ways to screw up. It was pretty much stimulus-response the whole time. Should I have tried to jump him? Perhaps. But I did not know anything about him. He did tell me that he did not drink. Drugs? Crazy? Scared? Agitated? Mad as hell? Yeah, I think it was something like that. Perhaps I could have overpowered him. Next time I might try. However, it was not until I was actually in the plane that I began to have really MORTAL thoughts. Before that I was operating under the assumption that I was going to be able to talk this guy out of what he was doing. That I could convince him to "go away." That I could conclude the episode at a low conflict level. Had I felt more directly threatened, had he started hitting me, I might have tried to get him. 2. Has it been, in any way, "fun"? No, not at all. It has been personally embarassing to me. I am sick of it. What kind of a goof-off is alone on a Saturday night washing his plane? 3. What was his mindset? I had a very hard time sizing up my passenger on the ground. He was obviously very nervous and very mad. Life just wasn't going right for him and he wanted to make a statement. This was perhaps the most difficult of all. He did not want money, or cars, or anything. He just wanted to make a scene either by killing some authority figure or taking hostages. Because he did not really have a plan, I was unable to think very far ahead in the situation. 4. What about my choices of airports? I dunno. Had I known Peoria was as close as it was would I have gone there? Probably not; remember that I was operating under the false impression that things at Kankakee would be smooth and co-ordinated. Best quote, from the defense lawyer: "If his gun had gone off in the plane, would that, you know, have caused a crash?" Me: "Probably, if it went off into my head." Ta-dum! She was, of course, referring to rapid decompression. I explained that my Cessna 172 did not have the pressurization option. Best dilemma: There was talk about reimbursing me for the fuel costs, etc. They asked me how much it costs me to fly my plane. I said about $30/hour, at 3 hours (roundtrip time to IKK) that it cost me about $90-100 for the whole incident. Now, I couldn't care less about the money in this case and I never asked nor expected to be reimbursed. I got to thinking - I CAN'T take the money, can I? I have to at least SHARE the expense with my "passenger." Gee, if I had only finished that commercial back then... Well, I gotta go work on my airplane... greg, N5457E, 'packin -- Gregory Reed Travis D P S I Data Parallel Systems Incorporated greg@cica.indiana.edu