Rock With Nova Scotia in 2010

It’s not very often that you hear good news when it comes to an armed assault on an aircraft. However, yesterday was a cause for celebration. Because of the actions of a CanJet crew the passengers got off the hijacked plane unhurt and the hijacker was captured.

CanJet Flight 918 landed in Montego Bay for a brief stop on its way to Cuba. Aboard were two wedding parties from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick along with other passengers from the Maritime provinces. At 10:22pm on Sunday a Jamaican national dressed as an airport employee pushed his way onto the plane. He was waving a gun and telling all the people aboard that this was indeed a hijacking. According to the Canadian Press he said, “I mean business, this is a hijacking. Sit down, nobody move!”

At around 8:00am on Monday morning a Jamaican anti-terrorist force stormed the plane and arrested the man.

But it was the bravery of the crew that should be commended. In a manner similar to the aircraft that landed in the Hudson River in January the CanJet Captain James Murphy and his crew were calm and very professional. The Boeing 737-800 was carrying 174 passengers and was to return to its home base of Halifax after dropping them off at Santa Clara in Cuba. After convincing the gunman to let the passengers go the crew remained onboard until he was captured by Jamaican authorities.

To its credit CanJet sent another plane to Toronto to pick up the slack caused by the removal of the affected 737 from action. These passengers were then ferried to Cuba and the waiting vacationers flown back to Canada.

According to security consultant Chris Mathers, a former RCMP operative, all the removal of sharp things and shoes from passengers before getting on an airplane is not a fail-save way to prevent a determined man with a gun to get to an aircraft. However, this incident will do more to slow-down security checks as the airlines industry and airport authorities strive to close another tiny hole in the system.

But this should also go the other way. We should applaud the training of flight crews. On two separate occasions, on two completely different airlines, the crews have made the difference between saving lives and catastrophes. And this makes traveling to and from Nova Scotia a lot more comforting to me!