I found this to be completely gripping. How did I never hear this story before?
This is the computer-generated re-creation of April 4, 1994 Federal Express Flight. Three of the four on board were ex-Navy pilots.
A McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 cargo jet was scheduled to carry electronics from Memphis, Tennessee to San Jose, California but an attempted hijacking changed this plan.
An off-duty flight engineer onboard was recently divorced and struggling to make his alimony payments. He was hoping to cause the plane to crash, that would result in a $2.5M “job-related death” insurance payout to his ex-wife and children.
The incredible aeorobatics performed by the two co-pilots, taking separate turns at fighting the hijacker, both while suffering grievous injuries, having had their skulls shattered by hammer blows to the head is nothing short of astonishing. The plane was cast into several aggressive rolls by a pilots, in attempts to help their partner fight off the assailant.
Those in the melee were forced into the back galley by an initial a steep climb. Then, a series of steep banks and rolls threw the fighting men onto the ceiling of the cabin.
You have to watch, to see how it ended.
