Today in History

1987 Attempted hijacking in Fiji foiled

The attempted hijacking of an Air New Zealand Boeing 747 at Nadi airport, Fiji, was thwarted when a member of the cabin crew hit the hijacker over the head with a whisky bottle.

Flight TE24 with 129 crew and passengers on board was returning to Auckland from Tokyo when it made a scheduled stop in Nadi to refuel. Ahmjed Ali, a Fiji Indian who worked for Air Terminal Services as an aircraft refueller, flashed his security card at cabin crew as he walked onto the flight deck. He closed the door and revealed to Captain Graeme Gleeson that he was carrying dynamite and the plane was being hijacked.

These were tense times in Fiji. A military coup d'état led by Sitiveni Rabuka had overthrown the elected government of Prime Minister Timoci Bavadra five days earlier. Ahmjed Ali wanted passage from Fiji and hoped his actions would force the military to release Bavadra and his cabinet from custody.

All 105 passengers − mainly Japanese tourists − and 21 cabin crew were able to disembark while the drama unfolded in the cockpit. Over the next six hours Ali was in touch with both the Nadi tower, where he spoke to relatives, and to Air New Zealand negotiators in Auckland. The increasingly agitated hijacker chain-smoked throughout the ordeal so he could easily light the fuse.

At around 1 p.m., while Ali was momentarily distracted by the radio, flight engineer Graeme Walsh struck him over the head with a bottle of duty-free whisky. Walsh stated later how he ‘thumped him on the head as hard as I could. I really wanted to hurt him.' Ali was immediately overpowered by the crew and handed over to police.  

1846 Brunner, Kehu and Heaphy reach Mawhera pa

This journey was part of Thomas Brunner's epic 1846-48 exploration of the South Island. He was accompanied by Kehu, a Ngati Tumatakokiri Maori, and Charles Heaphy, a draftsman and artist with the New Zealand Company, who later became Chief Surveyor.

Brunner had arrived in Nelson in 1841 and by August 1843 was a member of survey parties exploring its interior. Despite a fruitless attempt to discover great plains said to exist inland, he persisted in his explorations. In February 1846 he and Kehu joined Charles Heaphy and William Fox in a month-long exploration of the upper Buller River and its tributaries.

On 17 March Brunner, Kehu and Heaphy left Nelson again and, via Golden Bay, travelled the length of the West Coast as far as Hokitika. On their five-month return journey Brunner and Heaphy became the first Europeans to visit the Poutini Ngai Tahu settlements at Mawhera, Taramakau and Arahura, and to identify Mt Cook as New Zealand's highest mountain.

Image: Thomas Brunner (left) and Charles Heaphy.