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AIRBORNE TERROR
lt CAN Be Stopped!
What was
once a
joyride to Cuba has turned into
political blackmail and airport gun baH/es. The
next escalation could trigger
a
grave
international crisis.
by
William R. Whikehart
W
AVING A
gun and a hand grenade, a
passenger suddenly shouted, ''This is
a hijack.ing! Stay in your seats!" The
words were barely out of his mouth when a
security agent on board opened tire. Bullets
ripped into the hijacker, who pulled the pin on
the hand grenade and tossed
it
down the aísle.
A quick-thinking passenger quickly snatched it
up and threw it into a seat in front ofhim.
The exploding grenade knocked out the rud–
der and one of the plane's engines. As the jetli–
ner careened out of control, a savage gun battle
between terrorists and security guards erupted
in the smoke-filled interior. Said one passenger,
"Guns were erupting everywhere. There was
blood all over the place, and the plane was
dropping. We thought
it
was the end."
And it almost was - but somehow, the
crippled airliner managed to make it back safe–
ly to Addis Ababa. That's where the drama
had begun just minutes earlier when, after
takeoff from Ethiopia's capital, a group of ter–
rorists had tried to force their way into the
cockpit. When it was all over, six persons lay
dead - all of them hijackers.
New Form of Global Terror
This recent incident of airborne terror is but
one of a growing number of incidents which re–
flecta problem of global proportions. Terrorists
Bi/1 Schuler - Ploin Truth Art
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