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Two people aboard a plane allegedly hijacked over the South Island have told how they feared they would die as a knife-wielding woman entered the cockpit and spoke of killing all on board.
The captain of the 19-seater Air National flight and a passenger both suffered wounds, allegedly at the hands of the woman who spoke of having a bomb and wanting to fly to Australia.
"I believed that the plane was going to crash, or that my greatest fear was that she was going to attack the pilots. I didn't expect us to land safely," a passenger told a depositions hearing in Christchurch yesterday. Asha Ali Abdille, 34, a Somali vineyard worker from Blenheim, denies charges of hijacking, taking a weapon on to an aircraft, two counts of wounding with reckless disregard and two counts of injuring with reckless disregard.
The aircraft captain said he tried to talk the hijacker down, but it was only after the dramatic 50 minute flight had ended and the seven passengers fled the plane, that he saw his opportunity to force the woman to the ground and end the drama.
Abdille allegedly first entered the cockpit about 10 minutes into the flight between Blenheim and Christchurch in February.
"She was shouting: 'Take me where I want to go' and she was thrusting a knife at me," the captain said. "I raised up my hands, I guess in an instinctive reaction to protect myself, and managed to grab her wrist, but as she pulled her arm back I lost my grip and my right hand was cut.
"I said there wasn't enough fuel to get to Australia. She suggested that we just fly into the sea then."
When the woman said she had a bomb in a plastic bag she had with her, the captain said he took the claim "totally seriously".
Upon landing in Christchurch, Abdille agreed to allow the passengers to leave the plane.
The captain said: "I was angry, scared, I didn't want to become a hostage or stabbed again, or blown up and killed."
When she was distracted, he shoved her backwards into the aisle of the aircraft, where she became wedged.
"I moved backwards and stood over her and grabbed the wrist of the hand that had the knife.
"It was then I realised I had a large deep cut to my left hand and there was a significant amount of blood and my thumb was sitting out on a weird angle."
His first officer then allegedly suffered a cut foot while trying to kick the knife out of the woman's hand.
Eight witnesses are to be heard in the court hearing before two Justices of the Peace to determine if Abdille should stand trial on the charges.
