A brave pilot issued a chilling 10-word response after fighting off a potential hijacker who sent hundreds of passengers plunging towards the Earth.
On December 29 2000, a scheduled British Airways flight took off from London Gatwick - its destination being Jomo Kenyatta Airport in Nairobi, Kenya.
The Boeing 747-436 was captained by William Hagan, while Phil Watson and Richard Webb were appointed First Officers for the journey.
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19 crew members and 379 passengers were onboard the routine flight, including Roxy Music’s Brian Ferry and his family.
The County Durham-born singer, 78, his late wife Lucy Birley and two of their children were travelling to spend New Year on the island of Zanzibar.
However, while the famous family slept, a passenger called Paul Mukonyi stormed into the plane’s cockpit and went to grab at the controls.
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"I have done a lot of plane flights in my life, but this is the most eventful,” recounted Ferry to ABC News.
“I woke up thinking we were going through some bad turbulence, but I think we were on the third dip when I really thought about what was really happening.”
Mukonyi is said to have grabbed the yoke and tried to execute a route change, thus disconnecting the autopilot and causing the aircraft to stall at around 13,000m.
While he fought Watson for the controls, the plane began to plunge towards the ground at a terrifying 19,000 ft.
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Thankfully Captain Hagan, who had been on a rest break when the attack began, returned to the cockpit and successfully worked with Watson to keep the controls out of the hijacker’s hands.
With the help of passengers Gifford Murrell Shaw and former professional basketball player Henry Clarke Bynum, Mukonyi was removed from the cockpit.
Following the assailant being reprimanded by two flight attendants, Watson returned the aircraft to level flight.
Captain Hagan then made an announcement over the PA system, reportedly telling passengers: “A very nasty man just tried to kill us all.”
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Upon touching down in Kenya, Mukonyi was arrested by police.
Four passengers and a single crew member were taken to a nearby hospital where they were treated for minor injuries.
Recounting the incident to ABC News at the time, Ferry’s son Isaac, now 39, said: "It was suicidal. He was trying to kill everyone. He was very delirious. He seemed to be speaking to himself.”
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The 2000 British Airways incident is the subject of the new Channel 5 docu-series, Terror at 30,000 Feet.
Each episode of the show will focus on a different jaw-dropping airline disaster, with the first instalment focusing on BA Flight 2069.
Terror at 30,000 Feet premiered yesterday (July 19) but you can watch the first episode back online via Channel 5 now.
Topics: Travel, World News, TV And Film, Documentaries
Ella Scott