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HIJACKS & ATTEMPTED HIJACKS
19 APRIL: MONTEGO BAY, JAMAICA
Stephen Fray, 21, attempted to commandeer a CanJet aircraft, having pushed his way through an airport security checkpoint carrying a gun. On boarding the aircraft, which was preparing for departure to Halifax, Canada, via Cuba, he fired a warning shot and then demanded to be flown to Cuba. Passengers were released after one hour, but the crew were held a further six hours after which the aircraft was stormed and Fray was arrested.
SABOTAGE & ATTACKS
13 APRIL: MOGADISHU, SOMALIA
Insurgents carried out a mortar attack against Mogadishu Airport as a private aircraft carrying US Congressman Donald Payne departed for Nairobi. Al Shabab, Somalia's militant Islamist rebel group designated as a terrorist group by the U.S. State Department, claimed responsibility for the attack. One shell landed on the airport whilst Payne's aircraft was still on the ground and a further five after he had departed. The hospital reported that 19 civilians, mostly women and children, were injured when the shells landed in residential areas.
19 APRIL: TEL AVIV
A car bomb detonated close to Sde Dov, Tel Aviv's domestic airport. The car belonged to nightclub owner Ziv Shaya and it is thought that he was the target of an underworld action rather than it being a terrorist attack. Reports indicate that Shaya was approaching the Alpha-Romeo when he noticed something was amiss and so backed away; shortly afterwards the explosion occurred.
UNRULY PASSENGERS
28 MARCH: ATLANTA
Joao Correa, 43, was accused of twisting a Delta Air Line flight attendant's arm to get to the airplane's lavatory on flight from Honduras. Correa claims that he desperately needed to use the bathroom after eating something bad in Honduras, but that as the aisle was blocked with a drinks cart, he asked if he could use the lavatory in business class. He was told "no", but after a few minutes he was so desperate he went to use it in any case. A flight attendant put up her arm to stop him and whilst he alleges that he grabbed her arm to keep his balance, she claims he grabbed her arm, pulled it down and twisted it. He was arrested on arrival and charged with interfering with aircrew.
15 APRIL: CAMBRIDGE BAY, CANADA
It appears that Julien Tologanak-Labrie, 20, opened the door of an Adlair Aviation King Air 200 charter flight at 23,000 feet (operating from Yellowknife to Cambridge Bay), and jumped to his death. He had been detained earlier in the day by members of the RCMP under the Mental Health Act and had been taken to hospital. Adlair Aviation's General Manager, Paul Laserich, had boarded Tologanak-Labrie at the request of his mother who felt that he ought to be at home; he was one of only two passengers on the King Air 200 which normally seats 13.
INCIDENTS
18 APRIL: TEXAS
A 47-year old woman was paralysed when she disobeyed the illuminated fasten seatbelt sign to go to the toilet and the Continental Airlines flight from Houston to McAllen hit severe turbulence. Her injuries were described as being a "hangman's fracture", similar in nature to that of Christopher Reeve - a break of the back at the thoracic level and a fracture of the neck between the C1 and C2 vertebrae.
12 MAY: SHENZHEN
Liang Li, a 40-year old cleaner at Shenzhen Airport, was arrested in connection with the theft of a box containing 14kg of jewellery worth a reported US$439,000. She found the box on a baggage trolley and believed that it had been discarded. Finding it to be unusually heavy she examined the contents with some colleagues and then took it home.
JUDEGEMENTS & ARRESTS
19 APRIL: BOSTON
Corporal Justin Reed, 22, was arrested at Logan International Airport after a locked handgun box containing a semi-automatic handgun, a fully loaded gun magazine, several boxes of 9 mm and 7.62 mm ammunition, three model rocket engines containing an explosive mixture, military pull-type fuses, switches, electronics kit boxes with various components, and a hand grenade fuse assembly with detonator were found in his checked baggage during screening for his US Airways flight to Charlotte. He was in transit in Boston and the items were allegedly not identified in Las Vegas, where his journey began.
30 APRIL: LOS ANGELES
Lawrence Johnson, who claimed to have a bomb aboard a Los Angeles-bound airliner in January, was ordered to serve 120 days in a county jail, 240 days in a locked-down facility and three years of supervised probation
4 MAY: LOS ANGELES
Susan Monica Kriss, 25, was sentenced to six months' house arrest and three years' probation after pleading guilty to issuing a hijack threat in August 2007. She was also told to pay $14,100 restitution.
THREATS
17 APRIL: BAGDOGRA, INDIA:
A man called the airport and said a bomb was planted on the Guwahati-Bagdogra-Delhi flight operated by Indian Airlines.
29 APRIL: JAIPUR
Passengers on board an Air India flight from Mumbai to Jaipur heard that their flight was the subject of a bomb threat when one of the passengers spoke to a relative in the airport as soon as the flight landed.
30 APRIL: NANTES, FRANCE
An Easyjet flight from Paris Charles de Gaulle to Marrakech diverted to Nantes due to a bomb threat about 45 minutes into the flight.