www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6368704

Wounded Pilots Land Norway Plane After Axe Attack

Wed Sep 29, 2004 02:25 PM ET

By Inger Sethov

OSLO (Reuters) - An Algerian-born man attacked two pilots and a passenger with an axe on a domestic Norwegian flight on Wednesday in an unexplained assault that police said could be linked to his asylum status.

The pilots, who witnesses said were covered in blood from head injuries, managed to land the small Kato Air plane flying seven passengers from Narvik to Bodoe in northern Norway.

"I am going to crash this plane," said the 34-year-old man before attacking just as the aircraft was about to land, only 100 feet off the ground, according to witnesses.

Passengers said the attacker stood up without warning and walked to the open cockpit to attack the pilots. Some passengers screamed in fear but two others managed to overpower him.

"It was highly dramatic. The pilots fought off the attacker while struggling to gain control of the plane," acting chief police officer Tone Vangen told Reuters. "It is a miracle that it did not end up in a crash."

The motive for the attack was not clear but police said it could be tied to the man's asylum status. He was confined to a psychiatric hospital late on Wednesday after his arrest at Bodoe airport.

The attacker had been living at a northern Norwegian center for asylum seekers. Police said authorities had rejected his asylum application and he had been overdue to leave Norway.

He had probably carried the axe on board, police said, showing reporters a bloody axe with a wooden handle.

In normally tranquil Norway, smaller regional airports with no direct international flights, such as Narvik, have limited security with no scanning of the luggage before boarding.

"The threat scenario has so far not been such that we have considered it necessary to have higher security," said spokeswoman Ann Marit Solbakken at state air travel operator Avinor. "After what happened today, we must reconsider."

Avinor had been due to upgrade security at all its regional airports, including Narvik, on Jan. 1, 2005.

Passenger Irene Lokland, 45, was still shocked after the attack. "I thought we were going to die. I was picturing my three children in my mind," she told NRK radio.

Witnesses said the injured pilots gave a thumbs-up signal to the passengers to let them know that they would land safely after warning the air control tower about the attack.

The Nordland hospital in Bodoe said the three injured men, aged between 30 and 45, were being treated for head injuries.

The attacker, who was also carrying two knives, was unhurt.

Random violent crime is rare in Norway, but a man was killed and five others wounded last month when a knife attacker, also an asylum seeker, stabbed passengers on a tram in Oslo.

More from the Religion of PeaceTM

How dare you suggest that the attacker is muslim....How insensitive of you.

Commercial pilots need to be armed.  Preferably with guns.  Most cockpits are just too cramped for hand to hand combat.    

Why do you assume that because the man was from Algeria he was a Muslim?  

It is completely irregular for Muslims to commit acts of violence in the name of their religion.  Suggesting that Islam had ANYTHING WHATSOEVER to do with an Algerian man attacking the pilot of an aircraft in flight is simply bigoted.

Quoted: Why do you assume that because the man was from Algeria he was a Muslim?

Algeria is 99% Sunni Muslim.

Quoted: Why do you assume that because the man was from Algeria he was a Muslim?   It is completely irregular for Muslims to commit acts of violence in the name of their religion.  Suggesting that Islam had ANYTHING WHATSOEVER to do with an Algerian man attacking the pilot of an aircraft in flight is simply bigoted.

The FUCK it is -

www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ag.html#People

Religions:   Sunni Muslim (state religion) 99%, Christian and Jewish 1%

When the media covers a terror / physical violence story, and chooses to NOT to state the religion even when it is relevant to the story, the perpetrator is almost CERTAINLY Muslim. This pattern endlessly repeats, and shoud be obvious to anyone that looks at the issue.

EDITED to add: The ONLY time the media FAILS to mention religion in a geo-political story, is when the Subject is Muslim.

Someone must have told him "it's a trick"

Quoted: The motive for the attack was not clear

Oh, hell yes it is...................RoP.