A hijacker attempted to hijack an Airbus A320 to the United States which was supposed to connect two cities in Mexico, this Sunday, December 8, 2024. The 31-year-old man was overpowered by the crew and arrested. He was trying to escape an attempt on his life.
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An individual attempted, on Sunday, December 8, 2024, to divert a domestic Volaris flight in Mexico to the United States, but he was overpowered by the crew, the authorities announced. A video shot inside the plane by passengers and broadcast by the independent daily Reforma attests to this.
The plane, an A320 from the Toulouse manufacturer Airbus, took off at 7:17 a.m. from Leon airport, in central Mexico, bound for Tijuana (north-west), our AFP colleagues report.
Shortly after takeoff, “an individual attacked a flight attendant and tried to enter the cockpit to divert the plane to the United States”indicated the Ministry of Security in a press release.
The crew managed to subdue the attacker, and the plane made an emergency landing in Guadalajara (west).
According to authorities, the hijacker, a 31-year-old Mexican from the central state of Guanajuato, was traveling with his wife and two minor children. He was arrested by the National Guard in Guadalajara and the plane was able to return to Tijuana.
But while he was on his way to the prosecutor’s office, the man then threw himself at the driver of the National Guard vehicle, causing it to collide with a metal structure at the airport, according to the daily reforma. The suspect and the officers who accompanied him suffered minor injuries.
According to the Volaris company, “The attacker explained that a member of his family had been kidnapped and that when Leon took off, he received a message threatening him with death if he went to Tijuana.”
The state of Guanajuato, where the hijacker is from, is one of the hardest hit by violence linked to organized crime, which practices kidnapping and extortion.
