The Low Down on Hijack Prevention

 "Take me to Cuba" seems to stick in my mind as a famous phrase.

I have not had cause or motivation to mutter it myself, apart from trying to sound clever as a small child running around the school playground, but it appears to have been quite a regular demand forced upon the crews of commercial airliners from the 1960's.

The period from May 1961 to January 1973 was one of constant terror in the skies above the United States with a documented 160 hijackings.

A good proportion of these were politically or doctrinally driven with the destination of Cuba cited by those seeking residence in a revolutionary utopia.

By 1969 a US task force was set up to consider the measures necessary to counter the threat to passengers and flight crews aided by many, many suggestions either practical, racist or madcap by members of a concerned general public.

From 1972 there was a notable shift in the motivation of hijackers and 40 incidents in that twelve month period were for the extortion of money from Federal Authorities.

The most audacious crime and one that retains some mystery was that perpetrated by one D.B Cooper in 1972 who, after securing a sizeable ransom, parachuted out of the aircraft leaving no clues or trail as to his actual fate. The case file remains open on that one.

As early as 1971 inventors and designers applied their skills and thoughts to preventing airplane hijacking and the US Patent Registry is a fascinating source of applications with this intention.

One of the pioneering ideas of that era, now adopted as standard practice, was for a method and system for isolating the pilot and the cockpit from any intrusion from the passenger side whilst maintaining the communication essential for the mutual safety of all aboard the aircraft. This consisted of a reinforced door also fire and bullet resistant, only openable by the flight crew with one way radio link only from cockpit to cabin. This, rather morbidly, ensured that the flight crew could not be coerced by any violence wreaked by a determined hijacker on the passengers and cabin crew and be dissuaded from any attempt to land at the nearest airport.

The 1972 upsurge also saw proposals to disable , sedate or even kill a perpetrator through a solenoid actuated seat belt buckle working in combination with an inflatable seat back and a hypodermic syringe. In a potential hijack situation, with the hijacker identified by seat number a debilitating injection could be automatically administered through the seat cushion.

In contrast the 1980's was somewhat less innovative in anti hijacking methods although the Boeing Aircraft Company drew up schemes as a selling point for their short and long haul planes.

The events culminating in the seizure of Stateside passenger flights and the 9-11 terrorist outrages served, understandably to focus the minds of those concerned with aircraft security and safety.

Patent Applications post 9-11 included components on board to produce informational signals to reflect circumstances of a hijacking and to disable pilot flight commands. Other inventions centred on the release of stupefying laughing gas through the air conditioning system. Sophisticated computer controls could be used to monitor the aircraft position and predict possible targets if to be used as flying bombs to destroy buildings, military or State institutions and inflict high human losses. Remote control could take over the on-board systems such as deflating the landing gear , shutting off the fuel lines and avoiding high rise structures.

The passenger compartment could also be rigged with smoke generators, gas dispensers, stun devices and even tranquiliser darts as weapons against even the most determined attacker.

Perhaps the most imaginative idea was one from the infamous year of 1972.

A partition or barrier located immediately aft of the flight deck would be raised so as to segregate the aft section longitudinally into port and starboard areas. The floor could then be dropped on command to lower any erstwhile hijacker into a secure capsule in the belly of the plane.

This apparatus would then be released through a bomb door type arrangement and allowed to float down to earth on a traceable trajectory where the authorities would be waiting to scoop up and detain the individual.