- Have you ever wanted attention so bad that you
did something extreme that you would never normally do?
Well, then you wouldn't be alone,
because there are plenty of people
that have done some really intense things,
like hijacking something, to get attention,
and boy, did they get their points across.
But as you'll soon see, unsuccessfully.
Here are the 10 strangest hijackings that actually happened.
Number 10 is a warning from God.
In 2009, an Aero Mexico flight traveling
between Cancun and Mexico City was hijacked
for a really bizarre reason.
All 104 passengers were held hostage
by a 44-year-old Bolivian drug addict
who also happened to be a self-confessed minister.
His name was Josmar Flores Pereira,
and he hijacked the plane on September 9th, 2009
because if you turn the date upside down,
it goes from 999 to 666, the number of the beast.
Pereira actually threatened everyone on board with a bomb,
which in truth was just a can
filled with sand and decorated with colored lights.
Pereira said that he was just trying to warn Mexico
that Jesus Christ was about to return
and that there was also going to be
a catastrophic earthquake, but neither happened
and instead Pereira faced justice, hallelujah.
Number nine is let's go to the Olympics.
A Ukrainian man once tried to hijack a Pegasus Airlines
plane traveling from the Ukraine to Turkey
so that he could just go to the Olympics.
The hijacking took place in 2014
while the Winter Olympics were going on in Sochi, Russia.
During the flight, the man stood up and claimed
that he had placed an explosive device aboard the aircraft.
After trying to force his way into the cockpit,
the hijacker was tricked into thinking
that the plane was heading for the Olympics.
Instead, a military jet escorted the plane
to its original destination at an airport in Turkey.
The passengers were escorted off and the truth came out.
Turns out, the man was drunk, like really drunk.
No one knows exactly why he wanted to go to Sochi so bad,
but I guess he really just wanted to see the Olympics.
Maybe he was into synchronized swimming, who knows?
Number eight is destination, Cuba.
Between 1961 and 1973, there were nearly 160 plane
hijackings in the United States alone,
and strangely, most of the hijackers
had gotten it into their heads that they could go
and live in Cuba instead of America,
that life there would be better for them.
To counter the hijackings, several options
were looked at by the US government.
These included, and I'm not joking,
arming air stewardesses with tranquilizer darts,
and building secret trap doors outside cockpits
to drop hijackers through.
The irony in all of these cases is that
the hijackers who successfully diverted planes to Cuba
got a surprise when they arrived.
Fidel Castro, the leader of Cuba, wasn't a big fan
of their actions and um, had them imprisoned.
Although US citizens, I doubt the hijackers
could have found US government agencies that were, you know,
willing and interested in bringing them home.
It rarely works out when you try to take an ex back.
Number seven is all for love.
Egypt Air flight MS181 was hijacked
by Seif Eldin Mustafa in 2016.
After revealing a suicide belt to passengers and crew,
he demanded that the plane divert from its original
destination of Cairo and land in Cypress,
in the Mediterranean.
After landing in Larnaca Airport in Cypress,
a stand-off with Cypriot security ensued.
Finally, passengers were allowed to leave the plane,
but not before one of them bizarrely took a selfie
with the hijacker, still wearing his suicide belt.
As it turns out, the suicide belt was fake, surprise,
made from old pieces of electronics and cell phones.
The hijacker claimed he wanted Egyptian authorities
to free political prisoners, but in actual fact,
he just wanted to see his estranged wife
who lived in Cyprus.
Unfortunately, the feeling wasn't mutual
and he went to jail.
Man, love will make you do crazy things.
Number six is the prank that never was.
In 1969, a flight from Newark to Miami was hijacked.
Now you'd think the passengers would be terrified
in such a situation, but the truth is, they weren't.
The passengers believed the hijacking was an elaborate
prank and laughed when it happened.
The reason for this is that
one of the passengers was Alan Funt,
creator of a famous TV show called Candid Camera.
The show was an early front runner to prank
and hidden camera videos on YouTube,
so you can blame it for those.
Anyway, because Alan Funt was on the plane,
passengers believed the hijacking was part of the show.
One account even states that the passengers
gave the hijacker a standing ovation.
The plane landed in Cuba and the hijacker was arrested
and unfortunately, did not have
a glittering career and show business.
I guess you could say that he bombed.
(crickets chirping)
That was inappropriate.
Number five is that beer jacker.
In June of 1985, a Norwegian Boeing 737
and its 116 passengers was heading from Trondheim to Oslo.
It seems that cabin fever or air rage
got the better of one of the passengers,
as he decided to take his frustrations out
on all that boarded the plane.
Holding five crew members hostage with a pistol
that he was carrying, the passengers were allowed
to disembark once they landed.
The hijacker refused to release the crew
and demanded to speak with the minister of justice.
You'd think his demands were to fly to another country
to avoid prosecution or to have someone that he cared about
released from prison, (chuckles) no.
No, he just had one simple demand,
and Matt, what was that demand?
It was to be given a nice, cold pitcher of beer.
Yeah, pause for dramatic effect.
What can I say, the guy had his priorities.
Number four is the bumbling hijacker.
A Philippines Airlines flight was hijacked
in May of 2000 by a man who was both resourceful
and bumbling at the same time.
The hijacker was later identified as Reginald Chua,
and he no doubt considered his plan
to take all 278 passengers hostage as genius.
After smuggling a grenade and a handgun on board,
he fired a bullet into a bulkhead
and demanded to be let into the cockpit.
When the pilots refused, he then forced the passengers
to fill a bag with their valuables
and then ordered the pilot to descend
so that the plane would depressurize
and he could jump out with his parachute to escape.
Sounds like the perfect plan,
except his parachute was homemade and uh, had no rip cord,
and was made from a curtain.
Three days later, he was found
embedded in a mud field, ouch.
Number three is the North Korean agent.
A Korean airliner once found itself at the center
of an international dispute.
During December of 1969, the NAMC YS-11 aircraft
was carrying domestic passengers from Seoul, in South Korea.
10 minutes after takeoff, a passenger leaped up
from his seat, rushed past the cabin crew,
and entered the cockpit.
After incapacitating the flight crew,
the hijacker altered the plane's flight path.
Once in North Korean airspace, the plane was escorted
by three North Korean fighter jets,
and when the plane landed in Sonduk Airfield,
North Korean soldiers forcibly boarded the plane,
blindfolded all the passengers,
and took them to a secret location.
Bizarrely, as it turned out, the hijacking had been
orchestrated by North Korean secret agents.
After 39 days of negotiations, North Korea released
the 39 passengers, but 11 remain missing to this day.
Wait a second, why was that even on the script?
That's not weird for North Korea at all.
Time to get a new writer.
Number two is the heroic plot.
In April of 1994, a Federal Express flight engineer
called Oborn Colloway was about to lose his job.
Facing financial ruin,
Oborn hijacked a flight to California.
His plan was to crash the plane to get back at his employers
and make sure his family received $2.5 million
in life insurance for his death.
Knowing all of the security procedures,
he was able to smuggle several hammers
on the plane in a guitar case.
He intended on killing the crew with the hammers
so that the injuries would be consistent with a crash.
There would be no evidence of his hijacking
because he disabled the voice recorder on board.
So Oborn attacked the flight crew during the flight,
fracturing their skulls, but the quick thinking
of the pilot saved the day.
He sent the plane into a steep dive,
throwing Oborn against the ceiling.
From there, people were able to subdue him
and well, the rest is history, he went to jail.
See, turbulence isn't always bad.
And number one is a religious conspiracy.
On May 2nd, 1981, Lawrence James Downey
hijacked the plane that he was on.
Flight 164 was traveling from Dublin to London.
Just five minutes before the plane was due to land
at Heathrow Airport, Downey locked himself in the toilet
and covered himself in fuel.
Wait, where did he get fuel from?
Okay anyways, let's continue.
He threatened to set himself on fire
if the pilot did not listen to his demands.
Downey ordered the pilot to fly to Iran,
but when the pilot informed him that were wasn't
enough fuel on board, they settled for France.
The plane was diverted to Le Touquet Airport.
After landing, Lawrence James Downey made his demands known.
The pope was to release the third secret
of Lady Fatima for the world to see.
No one had a clue what Downey was talking about,
and he was arrested shortly afterwards.
I suspect he went on to write The Da Vinci Code.
That was Dan Brown?
Okay then this guy was just an idiot.
(mysterious music)