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A Co-Pilot Tackles a Hijacker While Simultaneously Disarming the Bomb
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The Action Movie Cliche:
Quick, name any movie wherein a plane is hijacked by freewheeling villains. What do the pilots do when the gunmen burst into the cockpit?
Columbia Pictures
"Hey, that door is supposed to be locked!"
That's right, they give up almost immediately (or they call the hijackers' bluff and get shot). It's basically a given that any pilot will hand over control of an aircraft without a fuss.
Warner Home Video
"You have made a powerful argument that I cannot refute."
The Real-Life Badass Who Put It to Shame:
Tom R. Bennett was the copilot on Trans Australian Airways flight 408 in 1960 when his flight faced the first midair hijacking in Australian history. The hijacker, Alex Hildebrandt, methodically checked off pretty much all of the villainous movie hijacker boxes by being a disgruntled Russian with a sawed-off rifle and a bomb that he had assembled in the bathroom, presumably after disabling the smoke alarm, which is also strictly against air safety regulations. He whipped out his lethal gun-and-bomb combination and began threatening everyone on board.
First Officer Bennett, rather than instantly cave in to Hildebrandt's demands, calmly approached the man and asked him to knock it off, which, while brave, is not a tactic that generally works on hijackers. Hildebrandt responded by firing a warning shot into the ceiling, to show Bennett he meant business. Bennett responded to that by punching Hildebrandt directly in the face with one hand while simultaneously ripping wires out of Hildebrandt's bomb with the other, disarming it.
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He then used one foot to make a chair out of reclaimed wood, and the other foot to make award-winning single-malt.
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