American Citizen Lethally Hijacks Small Plane in Belize, 3 Injured
An unusual incident occurred recently in a plane flight bound for San Pedro, Los Angeles from Corozal Town, Belize, a country on the north-eastern coast of Central America. A US citizen that goes by the name of Akinyela Sawa Taylor was identified as the hijacker of the plane with fourteen passengers onboard.
The hijack occurred when Taylor took control of the plane at knifepoint, after going into a stabbing spree targeting the passengers. Two passengers were injured as a result, including one who was stabbed in the back, literally.
However, after circling erratically over the coastline near Belize City, with depleting fuel, the passengers’ ordeal ended when the plane landed safely at Philip Goldson international airport in Belize.
According to Belize’s commissioner of Police, Chester Williams, Taylor ordered the pilot to “take him out of the country”, but he was shot in the chest by another passenger on the plane. According to a local hospital that received the passengers on this plane, Taylor was pronounced dead, and the injured passenger by the stab in the back was in a critical condition. Details of the incident remained unclear, but Williams said passengers narrowly escaped a more serious tragedy as the aircraft ran out of fuel from the erratic circling in air as it landed.
We were hoping that we don’t have to move from a search-and-rescue operation to a search-and-recovery operation. The [Rescue] helicopter was to follow the plane to see where it would land. So if they had decided to crash-land the plane in the sea, or on one of the islands, we would have been there quickly to respond and provide assistance to those passengers who might not be able to survive.
Belize’s commissioner of Police, Chester Williams
The hijacker’s motives are unclear, but Williams said Taylor had previously been refused entry into Belize, and authorities are now looking into how he was able to re-enter the country.