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liner, and other terrorists imitate the
same strong-arm tactics. A group of
airbome commandos force the re–
lease of political prisoners, and ter–
rorists everywhere begin attemptíng
similar methods.
So-caUed "get-tough" methods
may even be a factor. Although
such measures have undoubtedly
served to dissuade sorne would-be
hijackers, the use of force has ac–
tually served to encourage others.
Dalias psychiatrist Dr. David G.
Hubbard, who has studied a num–
ber of sky pirates, contends that
many of them have an underlying
death wish anyway, so the use of
force may provoke them to even
more erratic behavior.
lnfluence of Media
The
second
surface cause is the in–
fluence of the vast global communi–
cations network. As Dr. Hubbard
explained to
The
PLArN
TRUTH,
"Through the study of these men, I
repeatedly find in them the fact that
the way they did their crime, and
even the urge to do it, was largely
controlled by media inputs."
He then singled out the example
of American skyjacker D. B. Coo–
per, the first air pirate to parachute
from a commandeered plane with
ransom money. Says Dr. Hubbard,
"Skyjacking had gone on for a num–
ber of years, then aU of a sudden D.
B. Cooper comes along and decides
to jump by parachute. Now are we
to conclude that there was sorne sort
of emanation from the sun that sud–
denly modified all mankind, and
they just jumped like so much spon–
taneous generatíon? Or, does it
mean these men read accounts of D.
B. Cooper in the papers and fol–
lowed suit?"
l nterestingly enough, the first re–
ported airplane hijacking took place
over four decades ago - in South
America in 1930. But the impact of
the media was then quite limited.
The phenomenon didn' t really gain
notice in the world's eyes until after
World War II.
PLAIN TRUTH
April
1973
While East and West were hurl–
ing epithets back and forth across
the lron Curtain, refugees from the
Communist bloc began escaping to
the West by digging tunnels, scaling
fences, and crashing through gates
in cars and trucks. Soon they began
commandeering aircraft.
As these ai rbome "fighters for
freedom" began to arrive, the West
made their heroic exploits known to
the rest of the world by running
front-page headlines about them
and reporting their escapes via radio
and TV. The seeds that aircraft hi–
jacking could be used as an effective
pol it ical too! had been planted.
Then the phenomenon appeared
in the Western Hemisphere. Just 90
miles south of Florida, a man
named Fidel Castro had taken over
Cuba, and thousands of refugees
were tleeing to the
U.
S. mainland.
Inctuded in the exodus were sorne
25 hijacked aircraft. As in Europe
years earlier, the air pirates were
lauded as "courageous" and "he–
roic" in front-page headlines. But
the tables were soon to tum the
other way.
In 1961 , the first
U.
S. airliner was
forced to Cuba. By the late 60's, the
number of reported hijackings to
Havana began to increase dramati–
cally. Aircraft commandeering be–
gan erupting al! over the world as
well . Only now, the individual air
pirate had become the coordinated
terrorist group armed with sophis–
ticated weaponry and linked by in–
ternational contacts. The global
community of nations had fully en–
tered the "age of airbome terror."
Deeper Roots
These two surface causes are in–
deed chief contributing factors to air
piracy. But a closer look proves that
the
real causes are much deeper.
The world today
is
currently frag–
mented into about 136 distinct , sep–
arate countries. All have differing
ideologies, philosophies of life, and
policies toward the other 135. No
two nations, or parties within na-
tions, think exactly alike! This natu–
rally leads to interna! disagreements
and to disputes on an international
leve!.
History is replete with such strug–
gles. But today, it's far more serious.
Wars were once waged with swords,
spears, and guns. Now the airplane
is available. And so air piracy be–
comes a chief means by which one
nation, or party in a nation, can ex–
ert Jeverage against other parties or
nations. The very political structure
of the world is the first real cause of
airborne terrorism!
Second, there's the problem of the
human heart and mind. People are
naturally self-centered and easily
swayed by erroneous personal and
political causes.
The Solution to Ai r Piracy
Solving the problem of airborne
terrorism - like clearing up all of
man's other dilemmas - hinges
upon removing the real causes of
the problem.
Increasing the number of baggage
searches or magnetometers at pas–
senger boarding areas and signing
global treatíes designed to extradite
skyjackers ís not the final solution.
Neither is prohibiting the news
media from reporting incidents of
sky-high terrorism a final solution.
lt is obvious that sorne of these
measures are steps in the right dí–
rection. But they constitute, when
viewed in historie perspective, little
more than "stop-gap" attempts to
treat the effects.
The real solution is
to remove
the
collective and individual
causes
within nations, societies, and human
beings.
It's time we quit kidding our–
selves. Airborne terrorism will never
be stopped until the basic causes are
removed. But man has proveo in–
capable of removing those causes.
Man has chosen the way of self-rule
ínstead of the rule of God. And the
fruits of human self-rule (one of
which is air piracy) have been hor–
rendous. The solution to skyjacking
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