HIJACKED: FLIGHT 73
UK, 2023, 94 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Ben Anthony.
A 21st-century documentary and perspective on terrorist hijackings of planes in the latter part of the 20th century. There had been cruise ship hijackings, the Achille Lauro, an increasing number of playing hijackings, especially at Entebbe in 1977. This is the story of the hijacking of a Pan Am plane, originating in India, stopping for refuelling in Karachi and hijacked by Palestinian terrorists. The hijacking of Lockerbie was soon to come, implicating Libya and Colonel Gaddafi in the overall planning of terrorism with American attempts at bombings and retaliation. And, ultimately, there was 9/11.
The first part of the film shows the flight and the passengers, the takeover by the terrorists while they were at the airport in Karachi, their behaviour with the passengers, the attempted communication with the Pakistani authorities, the breakdown of communication, the fear of the passengers, the role of the flight attendants, the crew following orders and escaping from the cockpit so that there was no one to fly the plane onto Cyprus which was the stated intent of the terrorists. The hijacking was meant to be a demonstration against Americans but the flight attendant collecting the passports hid the American passports. The hours wore on, the music was Scott Joplin’s The Entertainer, played over and over and over, the passenger’s huddling, a British passenger taken as a possible mediator. There is also the authority at the Karachi airport and his attempts to dialogue, the subsequent shooting one of the passengers, and the poor response of the Pakistani government and the authorities at the airport.
A lot of this is brought vividly to life by re-enactment, establishing for the audience a sense of being there, identifying with the passengers, the terror, the hours, the board, the eventual shootings.
The documentary also has interviews for the making of the film by a number of people who were on the plane, especially to flight attendants who are able to describe what happened, their memories of what happened. There is also the British man explaining why he was on the plane, after the accidental death of his brother in the mountains. There is a man from Seattle, a terrified boy on the plane, playing with the child in the next seat, experiencing the death of the child. There are two sisters, Indians, remembering their brother and his wanting to attack, his eventual death. And, very sympathetically, there is the official from the airport trying to do his best, thwarted by the government authorities and their ill judged decisions.
After the audience experiences the hijacking, and has listened to the testimonies of those on board, appreciating seeing them in later years and their expressing their feelings at the time and since, there is a lot of evidence about the Pakistani government, incompetence, false storyies about a commando raid (and, throughout, a lot of footage from the news reporting of the time, even the president of Pakistani giving praise to how the situation was handled. Quite false.
But, the film continues with the capture of the terrorists after the wild shooting within the plane and the passengers escaping by the chutes, as do the terrorists who are then captured, tried and sent to jail. Then 15 years later, the chief terrorist is released from Pakistan, captured by the Americans, tried in an American court and condemned to life imprisonment – not long before 9/11.
A number of the witnesses were filmed attending the trial, expressing their feelings after 15 years.
There is a finale with the British passenger, reflecting on his brother’s death being the occasion for the flight, the chief terrorist being sympathetic towards him and sending him back to his seat in the plane, wanting to contact the terrorist, phoning the prison, and the recording of a conversation between the two, the terrorist expressing some remorse, explaining his situation where he was at the time, his motivations, and the intention of the hijacking to be a suicide crash (as happened with 9/11).
The film was released in April 2023 and appeared on streaming services in Australia in October 2023, at the very time of the Hamas attack on Israel and Israel’s war on Gaza.
