#plane hijacking

Did you known that the first person to hijack a plane was a gay palaeontologist?

When the Romanian army marched into Transylvania at the end of WWI, Franz Nopcsa - a Hungarian aristocrat - made the decision to flee. He didn’t have the necessary papers to leave the country, but he was able to use forged papers to get him a chartered flight to the border. Halfway there, he pointed a gun at the pilot, and demanded he fly all the way to Vienna, where they landed safely. The Romanians invited Franz to return in 1920 to work for the Geological Institute in Bucharest.

343 firefighters died on September 11, 2001. Many more have since died from associated cancers. Many more have ongoing PTSD. 

These first responders witnessed an unbelievable horror: fires, people pressed to windows, debris falling, and more horrifically, the sight of numerous people falling from the Towers. Despite the overwhelming heat, they still entered these infernos, and many therefore lost their lives. Even though the chances of survival for people in the upper floors were grim, they still wanted to help. 

Today marks a solemn anniversary. It has been 20 years since the 9/11 terror attacks, which killed 2977 innocent people, along with the 19 terrorists. 

We will never forget that terrible day, a day when innocent people who thought that Tuesday was just another day were massacred for the sake of fanatic ideologues. This just demonstrates the cowardice and evil of terrorism. 

Nor will we forget the death of firefighters, police officers, and other people who desperately tried to save the trapped in the Twin Towers. Many of those who survived have since succumbed to cancers associated with the smoke and particulates from the Towers. 

We will not forget the memories of desperate phonecalls from the Towers, or the many children who lost a parent due to these attacks. Nor will we forget those on Flight 93 who most likely saved America from another terror attack, for which they paid the ultimate price. 

Many of those who survived have suffered a range of consequences, from survivor’s guilt, to cancers, to PTSD. They are the continued victims of this unfathomable attack. To me, 9/11 was a vague memory, as I was 6 years old. I don’t even remember what I saw. For many, it is a living nightmare, even 20 years later. 

Ten years ago, a key architect of this wicked act faced justice in Pakistan, several months before the ten-year anniversary of 9/11. 

We must honour the memory of the dead and help the survivors by a total rejection of terrorism. Nobody ever has a justification for slaughtering innocent people in order to terrorise and cripple a nation. Anyone with those ambitions should not be welcome in the free world. 

May all the innocent who died rest in peace. 

Opposition leader Sviatlana Tikhanovskaya expressing fears for Roman Protasevich’s life after the Belarusian authorities kidnapped him yesterday. She rightly denounces the “impunity” of Lukashenko’s regime and calls for wider sanctions against his government. 

All I can say is that Western governments had better follow up their outrage with substantive, damaging action against Lukashenko’s regime. 

I have already watched with disbelief as these same governments failed to sanction all the names provided by Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny, when he was arrested on spurious charges and sentenced to over 3 years in prison. 

Likewise, Alexander Lukashenko continues his campaign of brutality against Belarusian citizens, including false arrests, abuse, kidnappings, and torture of journalists and other activists.