BREAKING NEWS........... SOMALI LADY HIJACKS PLANE

[sugar hill gang]

33-year-old Blenheim woman has been charged with hijacking after attempting to take over a flight from Blenheim to Christchurch on Friday, Radio New Zealand reports.

Police say the woman, originally from Somalia, attacked the pilot and co-pilot with a knife on Air National Flight NZ 2279. She demanded to be taken to Australia.

They say they received a mayday call from the pilots at 7.40am saying a woman had attacked them in the cockpit. She said there were two bombs on the plane.

The woman was disarmed when the plane hit turbulence as it came in to land at Christchurch airport.

The pilots managed to land safely at Christchurch at 8.06am.

One suffered severe cuts to his hand, the other suffered less severe cuts to his foot. Both were taken to hospital.

After the plane came to a halt halfway along a runway, armed police rushed aboard and led away the woman. She will appear in Christchurch District Court on Saturday.

The plane was then moved to a hangar to allow a bomb squad to continue its search, but nothing was found.

Canterbury Police Commander Superintendent Dave Cliff says two knives have been recovered. One knife was allegedly found on the suspect and another was found on the tarmac after she was apprehended.

Mr Cliff says it is still not clear what happened and police are interviewing the other passengers.

Police say inquiries are continuing, including checks into the woman's background.

Christchurch International Airport re-opened at midday on Friday. Hundreds of travellers were forced to wait for more than two hours - receiving little information from police or airport staff - after the terminal was evacuated.

The airport says most of the delays have been cleared. It says most of the delays occurred because incoming planes had to get priority to land.

Air New Zealand says it will conduct a security review.

General manager for short-haul airlines, Bruce Parton, says the incident, although a one-off, has given Air New Zealand cause to thoroughly review its safety and security procedures on regional domestic flights.

Air National chief executive officer Jason Gray says his company is proud of the efforts of its two pilots in a difficult situation.

Mr Gray says they did an amazing job, which reflects their high level of training and professionalism, and the company is giving the pilots and their families all the support they need.

The Government has ordered urgent reports from police and Aviation Security on the incident.

Blenheim airport manager Dean Heiford says the first anyone there knew of the drama was when Christchurch police called to ask questions about passengers.

Mr Heiford says Blenheim, like other provincial airports, does not check for potential weapons in luggage.

He says such incidents involving small airports are virtually unheard of, but Friday's events may raise questions about provincial airport security.

He says installing baggage X-ray machines at Blenheim and other provincial airports would be hugely expensive.

Ethnic Affairs Minister Chris Carter has called on the public not to judge the Somali community.

Mr Carter says he has spoken to Somali community leaders who are concerned their community will be stigmatised by the incident.

He says he wants to assure Somali New Zealanders that the Government will not tolerate any racial or religious intolerance.

About 1,800 people originally from Somalia live in New Zealand.

Source: Radio New Zealand

[HELWAA]

ok.

[stunnintolive]

this is scary story i don't think she wanted to hijack the pilot.damn somalidu waxwaalan waye

[The_Emperior5]

war wa tuu buuran ta wax QARXIIN GHAADHAY

[Sir-Luggoyo]

When would Somalis realize that there are things we are not good at, literally. Hijacking an airplane is one of them, suicide bombing is another