Air New Zealand Flight 24 was hijacked on the tarmac at

Nadi International Airport Nadi International Airport is the main international airport of Fiji as well as an important regional hub for the South Pacific islands, located by the coast on the western side of the main island Viti Levu. Owned and operated by Fiji Airports ...

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...

on 19 May 1987. The flight, operated by a

Boeing 747-200 The Boeing 747 is a large, long-range wide-body airliner designed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes in the United States between 1968 and 2022. After introducing the 707 in October 1958, Pan Am wanted a jet times its size, to ...

, was making a scheduled refuelling stop while en route from

Tokyo Narita Narita International Airport ( ja, 成田国際空港, Narita Kokusai Kūkō) , also known as Tokyo-Narita, formerly and originally known as , is one of two international airports serving the Greater Tokyo Area, the other one being Haneda Airport ...

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

. The hijacker boarded the aircraft and held the three flight crew members hostage, threatening to blow up the aircraft unless the

deposed Deposition by political means concerns the removal of a politician or monarch.
ORB: The Online Reference for Med ...

Fijian prime minister, Dr.

Timoci Bavadra Timoci Uluivuda Bavadra (22 September 1934 – 3 November 1989) was a Fijian medical doctor who founded the Fiji Labour Party and served as the Prime Minister of Fiji for one month in 1987. He was born in Viseisei, Viti Levu, and was medical doc ...

, and his 27 ministers who were being held under house arrest were released. The flight crew were eventually able to overpower the hijacker and hand him over to local police. There were no injuries or deaths reported, and the aircraft never left the tarmac.

Hijacking

Flight TE24 was en route to Auckland from Tokyo when it made a scheduled refuelling stop in Nadi. Most of the passengers on this flight were Japanese. TE24 was standing on the tarmac refueling when Ahmjed Ali, armed with dynamite explosives from a gold mine, boarded the aircraft. Ahmjed Ali, then aged 37, an ethnic Indian who worked as a refueler for Air Terminal Services, entered the flight deck and told to the captain that he was carrying dynamite and would blow up the aircraft if his demands were not met. Using the plane's radio, he demanded the release of the deposed Fijian prime minister, Dr.

, and his 27 ministers who were being held under house arrest by rebel leader Lt. Col.

Sitiveni Rabuka Sitiveni Ligamamada Rabuka, (; born 13 September 1948) is a Fijian politician who has served as Prime Minister of Fiji since 24 December 2022. He was the instigator of two military coups in 1987. He was democratically elected as Prime Ministe ...

in the

1987 Fijian coups d'état The Fijian coups d'état of 1987 resulted in the overthrow of the elected government of Fijian Prime Minister Timoci Bavadra, the deposition of Elizabeth II as Queen of Fiji, and in the declaration of a republic. The first coup d'état, in wh ...

. Ali also demanded to be flown to Libya. All 105 passengers and 21 of the 24 crew disembarked. Captain Graham Gleeson, flight engineer Graeme Walsh, and first officer Michael McLeay remained with Ali in the cockpit. For six hours, Ali talked with relatives in the Nadi tower and Air New Zealand negotiators in Auckland. Meanwhile, the

New Zealand Special Air Service The 1st New Zealand Special Air Service Regiment, abbreviated as 1 NZSAS Regt, was formed on 7 July 1955 and is the Special forces unit of the New Zealand Army, closely modelled on the British Special Air Service (SAS). It traces its origins to ...

were placed on a state of "preparedness." At around 1 p.m., while Ali was distracted with the radio, flight engineer Walsh hit him with a bottle of whiskey. The crew members were able to overpower Ali and handed him over to local police. He received a suspended sentence for taking explosives onto an aircraft.

Aftermath

Following the incident, New Zealand's Prime Minister,

David Lange David Russell Lange ( ; 4 August 1942 – 13 August 2005) was a New Zealand politician who served as the 32nd prime minister of New Zealand from 1984 to 1989. Lange was born and brought up in Otahuhu, the son of a medical doctor. He became ...

, said that he was "grateful" the incident was over. Ahmjed Ali later became a member the

House of Representatives of Fiji The House of Representatives was the lower chamber of Fiji's Parliament from 1970 to 2006. It was the more powerful of the two chambers; it alone had the power to initiate legislation (the Senate, by contrast, could amend or veto most legislati ...

in 1999. In 2014, Ali confirmed to the Dominion Post that he has been granted permanent residency in New Zealand since 2009. Immigration New Zealand refused to comment on the circumstances regarding the granting of his resident status. Captain Gleeson has said that he did not condone the hijacking, but was sympathetic to Ali.

References

{{Air New Zealand Accidents and incidents involving the Boeing 747 Aviation accidents and incidents in 1987 Air New Zealand accidents and incidents 1987 in New Zealand 1987 in Fiji 1987 disasters in Fiji Aviation accidents and incidents in Fiji