A Protestant priest who hijacked a Mexican plane mid-air with 104 people on board, triggering a brief airport drama, claimed he was on a divine mission, officials said.
Jose Mar Flores Pereira, 44, was said by Mexican officials to have hijacked the Aeromexico Boeing 737 after it left from the popular tourist resort of Cancun on a flight to the capital.
All the passengers — most of whom had no idea they had allegedly been taken hostage — were safely evacuated in Mexico City as security forces swarmed the capital’s international airport within minutes of the plane landing.
PHOTO: EPA
The airline said it was originally alerted to the situation after it “received a bomb threat while in flight,” according to a statement.
Initial media reports involving multiple hijackers carrying explosives were later denied by Mexican Transport Secretary Juan Francisco Molinar Horcasitas, who confirmed there was no bomb found on the plane.
While Flores Pereira acted alone, Mexican officials said they originally arrested five other people following the alleged hijacker’s indication he was acting with accomplices, referring to “himself [the Father], the Son and the Holy Spirit.”
After being taken into custody, Flores Pereira told authorities he had wanted to protect the country after he “had a revelation that Mexico was facing a great danger, and was threatened by an earthquake,” public security official Genaro Garcia Luna told reporters.
The priest, brought out for questioning by the media, told reporters his act was linked to Wednesday’s date — Sept. 9, 2009 — because the numbers 9/9/9 were the “opposite” of 6/6/6, the numbers associated with the Antichrist.
Flores Pereira had demanded to fly over the airport “seven times” and to speak with Mexican President Felipe Calderon, Garcia Luna said. Calderon canceled his afternoon meetings to head to the sprawling airport.
The alleged hijacker was also said to be a former prisoner and drug addict from Bolivia, who has lived in Mexico for 17 years.
Thirty foreigners were among the passengers, according to diplomatic sources: 18 Americans, five Canadians, three French, three Bolivians, two Spaniards and a German.
“We only learned about it when we landed and we informed by the crew over the radio that we had been hijacked,” passenger Rodrigo Padilla said. “Everything was very quiet, there were no guns, no shots were fired.”
In less than an hour, the drama had been brought to an end.
“We intervened in this crisis and all the passengers were taken to safety. The security forces are now carrying out the necessary investigations,” Horcasitas said.
The hijacker had been unable to enter the plane’s cockpit during the flight and did not compromise the aircraft’s safety, Horcasitas said.
The passengers were briefly made to sit on the tarmac by security forces, before being led away. The last to leave the plane was the captain, who had negotiated the release of the passengers with a woman air controller.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS