On April 19th, 2009, CanJet flight 918 was to depart from Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay, Jamaica. It was bound for Santa Clara, Cuba, followed by its return to Stanfield International Airport in Halifax, Canada. The flight was to use a Boeing 737-800 with registration C-FTCZ. It was scheduled to depart at 23:00, arriving back in Halifax at 07:15 the next day.
Some passengers left the aircraft in Montego Bay, while others joined for the onward flights. There were 174 Canadian passengers onboard, many of whom were part of four wedding parties going to Cuba.
The crew
The captain was James Murphy; first officer, Glenn Johnson, and security officer Garry Knickle, were also onboard. The lead flight attendant was Heidi Tofflemire, and the flight attendants were Carolina Santizo Arriola, Nicole Rogers, Anu Goswami, and Tony Bettencourt.
Carolina had been a flight attendant for just six months. She had a 7-year-old son called Thomas and usually worked on daytime flights to be with him. She had covered the flight for a sick colleague and left her son with her parents. Nicole had been flying for about a year and a half.
What happened?
At 22:00, a 20-year-old Jamaican man called Stephen Fray breached security at the airport. He pushed past the boarding passengers, brandishing a gun. He fired a shot. Luckily, it hit no one. He threatened passengers, shouting, “I mean business, this is a hijacking, sit down, nobody moves!”
Nicole was handing out customs forms in the rear of the cabin and heard a commotion. The hijacker demanded that they go to Cuba and then the US. “You can’t stop me; I’m going to America,” he exclaimed.
The passengers complied, prayed, or cried. They could not believe it was real. They kept their heads down and avoided eye contact. The hijacker waved the gun at them, threatening to shoot anyone who moved or tried to escape. The captain left the cockpit to see what was happening. Heidi went into the cockpit, and the first officer locked the door. Carolina walked into the forward galley to find the captain with a gun at his neck; he had told the hijacker that there was no fuel to fly to the US. She smiled at the hijacker, who smiled back.
The next steps
Heidi called her mother from the cockpit, saying that the aircraft had been hijacked. Carolina didn’t want the passengers to see her alarmed, so she continued to smile. The hijacker then decided to hold her hostage with his gun at her head. Nicole tried to bring the children to the rear of the aircraft; all the flight attendants were trying to comfort the passengers and remained composed throughout. The hijacker sprayed one of the flight attendants with a fire extinguisher.
” Their composure led to a successful outcome of this. They executed all of the steps as part of their security training to keep their passengers safe and well as theirselves safe and secure. I’m just so proud how they all dealt with it all. In my view that speaks to their training and their integrity.”
Kent Woodside, General Manager of CanJet as told to CBC news
Carolina negotiated with the hijacker and convinced him to let the passengers go. But first, they had to leave all their money and personal belongings. Carolina said they had money and would leave it behind for him. Nicole collected wallets and purses in a bag for the hijacker. Thirty minutes into the ordeal, the passengers were released. The captain was released on the pretense that he would arrange for fuel to be brought to the aircraft. Some of the passengers cried and apologized to the crew they left behind.
Photo: Jamaica Observer
Crew hostages
For the five remaining crew in the cabin, Carolina, Nicole, Anu, Tony, and Garry, the ordeal continued. Heidi and the first officer remained in the cockpit, the first officer speaking with the hijacker on the intercom. At midnight, the hijacker told the first officer to prepare for the flight. Security forces and a chaplain from the Jamaican police tried to negotiate with the hijacker, to no avail. They asked him to speak with his family, and the Jamaican Prime Minister made his way to the airport to help with negotiations. The hijacker’s family and friends arrived at the airport to speak with him.
The hijacker would run his gun up and down the flight attendant’s legs; he threatened to kill the security officer. Carolina told him about her son, asked him about his family, and tried to reason with him. The hijacker asked for Jack Daniels whiskey and to hear Celine Dion’s music, but these were refused. He was worried that the remaining men might try to overpower him and so arranged for Carolina to take some drugs from the passengers’ luggage to ‘knock them out.’ She found some antacid tablets and gave them to the men, convincing the hijacker that they were sleeping tablets.
The hijacker’s father was brought onboard to speak to him, but any attempt to negotiate was unsuccessful. When this didn’t work, the police were ordered to overtake the aircraft. The Canadian Prime Minister was in Jamaica and went to meet the freed passengers.
” The stewardess from the back seemed to be able to calm him and tried to…reason with him into letting them off, if they left their money and wallets there and that seemed to have worked for him and that seemed to be the way they were able to get off the plane.”
Cheryl Spear, mother of passenger on flight 918 as told to CBC news
Final stages
The hostage situation had now gone on for almost eight hours. The hijacker told the remaining crew to put items of clothing from a passenger bag over their heads. They were told to switch the lights off in the cabin. The hijacker was now holding the gun at Nicole’s head. At 06:40, the Jamaican Defense Force Counterterrorism Operations Group stormed the aircraft. Two of the group climbed in through the cockpit window, one in a pilot’s uniform, replacing the first officer. Heidi was helped down from the cockpit window.
Before leaving, the first officer explained to the hijacker he needed to open the window to check that the fuel truck was unattached as they were ready to depart. The hijacker looked out of the window briefly, and Nicole saw a chance and grabbed the gun, passing it to one of the group. Nicole and Carolina ran away from the aircraft.
“What could have been a terrible, unimaginable tragedy, turned instead into a tremendous triumph of courage and professionalism. The crew of Flight 918 bravely contributed to a resolution in which all passengers were released safely and unharmed.
Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada via news release
Afterwards
Stephen Fray received a 20-year prison sentence, although later he was described as mentally challenged, and his lawyer appealed against the decision. The passengers were sent to hotels and another aircraft was sent for them to complete their onward journeys to Cuba and Halifax.
Carolina was awarded a ‘Medal of Bravery’ for her negotiation skills, and Nicole received a ‘Star of Courage’ for disarming the hijacker. The Air Line Pilots Association commended the crew for their efforts, and they were invited to visit the Governor General of Canada.
Carolina continued to fly part-time for a little longer. She married and gave birth to a sister for her son. Nicole didn’t fly again, but she married and had two daughters.
“I just know I still had so much more I wanted to do with my life. I promised kids in the back that I was going to get them off and get them home. I wanted to keep my promise and I did.”
Nicole – flight attendant as told to The Globe and Mail
Sources: The Globe and Mail, Readers Digest Asia Pacific, Maclean’s, CTV news, Government of Canada, CBC news, Jamaica Observer, The Toronto Star