Singapore Airlines Flight 117

Singapore Airlines Flight 117

Hijacking summary
Date	March 26, 1991
Type	Aircraft hijacking
Site	Singapore Changi Airport
Passengers	114 (excluding hijackers)
Crew	9
Injuries	2
Fatalities	4 (hijackers)
Survivors	123 (all, excluding hijackers)
Aircraft type	Airbus A310-300
Operator	Singapore Airlines
Tail number	9V-STP
Flight origin	Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport
Destination	Singapore Changi Airport

On March 26, 1991, Singapore Airlines Flight 117 was hijacked in flight by four male passengers who claimed to be Pakistanis. The plane, an Airbus A310 with registration 9V-STP, had taken off from Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia with 118 passengers and 11 crew on board. The plane was hijacked in mid-air while en route to Singapore Changi Airport, and landed safely at Changi Airport, where an executive group of government officials from the Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts, along with Singapore Airlines representatives and a negotiating team, were all standing by.

The hijackers, who claimed to be members of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), demanded the release of former Prime Minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto's husband, Asif Ali Zardari (current President of Pakistan), as well as other PPP members from jail. The hijackers also required the plane to be refuelled in order to fly to Australia.

After their demands were not met, the hijackers threatened to begin killing hostages; before their deadline expired commandos stormed the plane, killing the hijackers and freeing all hostages unhurt.

The Hijack

Four hijackers from the Pakistani-based Leftist group called Al-Zulfikar or "the Sword" had boarded flight SQ117 in Kuala Lumpur for the short hop to Singapore on March 26, 1991. The flight, piloted by Captain Stanley Lim, took off promptly at 9.38pm from Subang International Airport. But 12 minutes later, with the plane at its cruising altitude of 8,300m, one hijacker, Sahid Hussain Soomro, barged into the cockpit holding what appeared to be explosives and a cigarette lighter. "Don't land in Singapore. Take us to Sydney," he demanded. Capt Lim explained calmly that there was not enough fuel, so it had to land in Singapore. Sahid threatened to blow up the Airbus A-310 jet but Capt Lim kept his head, replying: "We don't have enough fuel. If we carry on, we will crash." The hijacker relented, saying: "Okay, Okay. We land in Singapore, but we go to Sydney after that." During that time, his three other comrades were ushering passengers and cabin crew into the economy-class section of the plane.

At 10.24pm, SQ117 landed at Changi Airport and taxied to a halt on Runway One before being led to a secluded area near the fire station, and cordoned off and sealed. As the police surrounded the aircraft, Sahid ordered Capt Lim to relay his demands to the authorities. The hijack was a bargaining chip for the release of the hijackers’ compatriots in the Pakistani People’s Party, including the husband of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. He wanted to speak to the Pakistani ambassador in Singapore, contact former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto and an adviser to the ex-chief minister of the Sind province, the release of 11 of his Pakistan People's Party comrades from different jails in Pakistan, and the plane to be refuelled and flown to Sydney, Iraq or Libya. If the demands were not met, hostages on board SQ117 would be killed.

Singapore's crisis response machinery was already under way when the plane landed. Capt Lim had earlier managed to relay news of the hijack to air-traffic controllers on the ground, just seconds before Sahid stormed into the cockpit, giving time for the authorities here to gear up. This, after he was alerted by chief steward Philip Cheong, who heard the hijackers at the back of the aircraft when they were taking control of the plane.

The Police, Singapore Armed Forces and the Executive Group (EG) – a national crisis management unit set up in the civil service – were mobilised. Police negotiators led by Superintendent Foo Kia Juah made contact with the hijackers via Capt Lim.

Initially, the passengers and cabin crew thought the hijackers were just drunk, but quickly learnt they were both sober and deadly serious about carrying out their threats. As the hours passed and the Pakistani government refused to accede to the hijackers’ demands, their tone became more agitated.The hijackers also grew more impatient and violent fast. At 11.20pm, hijacker Fida Mohammad Khan Jadoon roughed up steward Bernard Tan, doused him with flammmable alcohol and pushed him out of the plane onto the tarmac, a 4.5m drop. About four hours later, Mr Philip Cheong was beaten up and pushed out as well, apparently for not responding to the hijackers' orders fast enough. Mr Tan sprained both his ankles and injured his back in the fall, while Mr Cheong suffered bruises on his stomach, knees and right hand.

Throughout that ordeal, Supt Foo – who had Assistant Superintendent Saraj Din Sher Mohamed, an Urdu-speaking police negotiator, by his side – was trying to buy time amid the violence, with every minute spent talking seen as an "an achievement in itself".

At midnight, with no sign of their demands being met, the hijackers started dousing the front of the plane and the cockpit control panel with flammable alcohol, threatening to set the plane ablaze. They threw wine and brandy around the jet again at 4am, in between repeated threats to kill hostages, but only to be persuaded otherwise by the negotiators.The hijackers were slightly appeased when one load of fuel was delivered at 5am, although the plane would require several more loads before it could fly. Aside from the slight reprieve, negotiations were heading nowhere.

The stakes suddenly rose at 6.45am when hijack leader Sahid gave up on negotiations and said to Capt Lim: "Start the engine. We leave now. We will kill everyone if you don't. We give you five minutes." At 6.47am, the order was given to the commandos to execute the rescue mission, codenamed Operation Thunderbolt, while the negotiation team kept up their conversation with the hijackers.

In an exhibition of swift precision, the black-clad commandos moved in on SQ117, propped up ladders against the fuselage and breached the aircraft doors with explosives. All within three minutes. Once the doors were opened, diversionary devices called flashbangs were thrown into the cabin, producing deafening sounds and blinding flashes. That left the hijackers in disarray long enough to give the commandos the element of surprise and the vital seconds needed to pick off the terrorists with their submachine guns.

In less than 30 seconds after the commandos entered the plane, the four hijackers were dead – two gunned down in the cockpit and two in the business-class section. All passengers were rescued alive with no casualties and ferried to safety.

Aftermath

Prime Minister of Singapore Goh Chok Tong commended all those involved in handling the ordeal and rescue mission for their swiftness and efficiency. Captain Stanley Lim, the pilot of the flight, and Superintendent Foo Kia Juah, chief police negotiator, were awarded the Public Service Star for their roles. The SAF CDO FN were awarded the Medal for Valour, and others in the negotiating team were given Presidential Certificates of Commendation.

Several years later in 1997, at the unveiling of the Singapore Special Operations Force, Singapore Armed Forces acknowledged that the unit involved in resolving the incident was a classified secret, elite counter-terrorism and special reconnaissance and operations unit formed in the mid-1980s.The rescue raid that had been previously attributed to the Singapore army commandos was actually executed by the SOF.

Singapore Airlines continues to use Flight 117 operating from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore. The flight now flies to KLIA instead of Subang.

The aircraft

The hijacked aircraft had been delivered to Singapore Airlines on 22 November 1988. It continued in service after the incident, until it was transferred to Spanish airline Air Plus Comet on 11 May 2001. On 31 May 2003, it was retired and is currently stored in the Mojave Air & Space Port in the United States.

See also

• Counter-terrorism in Singapore
• List of accidents and incidents on commercial airliners
• Air France Flight 8969 - a similar incident which resulted in forces storming the aircraft.

External Links

• Tan Lay Yuen (17 April 1999). "Hijacking of Singapore Airlines Flight SQ 117". Singapore: National Library Board. http://infopedia.nl.sg/articles/SIP_834_2004-12-30.html. Retrieved 21 June 2011.