Pacific From Hong Kong, joined Mar 2000, 1033 posts, RR: 0 Posted (13 years 1 month 22 hours ago) and read 2131 times:
I saw a camera footage of an Air France hijack which happened in 1994 and how the French SWAT team (do they call it GIGN?) stormed it. Is the plane still in use? They threw two or three grenades into the cockpit so it must have been pretty messy after that. The plane looked like a B767.
DC10 From Canada, joined Apr 2007, 0 posts, RR: 0 Reply 1, posted (13 years 1 month 21 hours ago) and read 2046 times:
The french special police forces named GIGN (groupement d'intervention de la gendarmerie nationale); it was a A300 (with 3 pilots) on a flight from Alger to Paris, and their was a very big hole in the cockpit glas, but I don't remember any other damages to the plane. I think it has been repeared, but is it still in use in AF? I don't know...
Some algerians hijackers were killed but no PAX or crew.
After this tragedy, AF flights beetwen Alger and Paris were suspended for a few years.
AF Cabin Crew From French Polynesia, joined Sep 1999, 1036 posts, RR: 37 Reply 5, posted (13 years 1 month 18 hours ago) and read 2028 times:
Hello everyone
First, what tg 747-300 stated is totally false. The A300 didn't crash at Marseille (killing all onboard) some months after the hijacking because
1-The aircraft was a total write off and was withdrawn from service as the flight deck was totally destroyed. I have magazine pictures of it where you can see it full of blood and bullet impact. All hijackers, 5 of them, were killed by the GIGN. No fatalities within the crew apart for injuries. The copilot was the worst touched as he just jumped from the flightdeck and broke both legs an ran for meters.
I recently flew to Tokyo with one of the stewards that was on the flight. He held the door while one of the hijackers killed a hostage.
3 passengers died during the hijacking that took place on Christmas day. The first to be killed was an Algerian police officer, the second one was a vietnamese businessman and the third one was the french embassy's Chef, who was french.
The algerian governmant insisted to keep the plane on its soil and show the world that they can solve the problem. The french government tried to have the plane come back to its homeland to solve the problem. To no success, until the killing of the french cook occured and then our Prime minister called the algerians and told them that was it the airplane had to come home and that from then we would deal with the situation.
The terrorist's plan was to blow up the plane over Paris.
AF Cabin Crew From French Polynesia, joined Sep 1999, 1036 posts, RR: 37 Reply 6, posted (13 years 1 month 18 hours ago) and read 2026 times:
I must continue the story.
So the terrorists plan was to have the airplane fly to Paris and have it blown up over the French capital.
The airplane was sort of forced to land by the people dealing with the hijacking in France. They told the pilot to land in Marseille to fake a refuel.
The GIGN was flown to MRS as well as Christian Blanc, our then CEO in an AF A310.
The hijackers were very tough and the team dealing with them were counting on attacking when they would be tired, that why it was done in the early morning of the day. They stormed the aircraft and killed the hijackers.
All passengers were evacuated by the slides.
Air France wrote off the plane, and only 3 of the cabin crew are still working for AF, the other ones have left us for obvious psychological reasons.
One of the female flight attendants wrote a book about what happened. It is very simple to read, in french but very emotional sometimes, a full book about what happened during these long hours, when the hijackers forced all the women to wear the "tchador", that scarf wrapped around the head, the bombs layed around the plane, walking on top of the dead passenger's corpses to go and get the water and food delivered by the catering...
WorldTraveller From Germany, joined Jun 1999, 624 posts, RR: 5 Reply 7, posted (13 years 1 month 14 hours ago) and read 2014 times:
Thanks for your report, AF Cabin Crew.
I saw the pictures of the rescue operation on TV and it must have been terrible moments for the passengers and crew on board. My respects go out to the brave GIGN team!
GLA MD11 From France, joined Mar 2000, 275 posts, RR: 0 Reply 8, posted (13 years 1 month 13 hours ago) and read 2011 times:
Hello everbody,
Three things that need to be added to the brilliant summary of AF Cabin Crew.
First is that the whole scene was filmed from the terminal, despite obvious security reasons and we had all the images live or slightly delayed. It was pretty impressive. The assault took place around 8PM, just at the beginning of the news on TV.
Second, the copilot jumped from the cockpit and did a pretty impressive stall to the concrete. He then ran with one or two broken legs to the movable stairs used by the GIGN and then gave them vital information about where the hijackers were, especially since one was hiding behind the cockpit's door.
Third and last, I think one of the member of the GIGN was injured during the operation.
Respect to all of the actors of this drama (but the bad ones of course).
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