"Chinese airport authorities stage largest-ever hijacking drill"

September 20, 2001

Chinese airport authorities stage largest-ever hijacking drill
Agence France Presse


BEIJING, (AFP) - Airport authorities in south China have staged their
largest-ever anti-hijacking drills, showcasing the airports' preparedness a
week after the devastating hijacked jet attacks in the United States, state
media and officials said Thursday.

Wednesday's exercise, which involved 400 people, took place according to a
carefully crafted script which ensured the good guys won with no loss of
innocent lives.

In the mock hijacking, two terrorists with explosives strapped to them took
control of a passenger jet en route from Shenzhen city's Huangtian Airport
to the southeastern city of Fuzhou, the Guangzhou Daily reported.

While the terrorists wanted to go to an unidentified foreign destination,
the pilot of the airplane managed to turn back to Huangtian airport, the
paper said.

Once the plane had landed there, the terrorists understood they had been
fooled but reacted slowly enough that one of them was overpowered by the
crew, according to the paper.

The other terrorist had time to blow himself up, in theory blasting a large
hole in the rear of the aircraft, the paper said.

After little more than an hour, the drill ended with the one surviving
hijacker being led off by police and five injured passengers transported for
emergency treatment.

Airport authorities contacted by AFP denied the drill had been in any way
motivated by last week's terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New
York and the Pentagon near Washington D.C.

"There is no connection," said a security staff member. "This drill was
planned a long time ago."

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