A Jordanian Air Marshal pulled a gun on passengers who were attempted to enter the cockpit to speak to the captain about a diversion. Was that necessary, especially when the plane was already on the ground?
Jordanian Air Marshal Points Gun At Angry Passengers After Flight Diversion
The incident occurred months ago on a Umrah flight from Saudi Arabia to Nigeria operated by Jordan Aviation (JAV), an Amman-based charter company. It is only this week, however, that video of the incident has gone viral and it certainly merits our discussion.
In the video, we see a Jordanian Air Marshal warning passengers to stay away from the flight deck, then pulling his gun out and pointing it toward passengers. Interestingly, the passengers seem undeterred by the gun, as they continue to argue with the marshal and even step closer, though he does keep them out of the cockpit.
Dramatic footage of Jordanian security officer brandishing a gun as he tries to push back Nigerian passengers on Jordan Aviation airlines JAV from reaching the cockpit. Passengers were angry with JAV over it’s route. Not a hijacking attempt. JAV said the video is few months old pic.twitter.com/YgQ6Phw7NR
— Ali Younes (@Ali_reports) June 12, 2022
According to scattered reports, the JAV 767-200 was supposed to fly to Kano, Nigeria (KAN), but diverted to Yola, Nigeria (YOL), which is about 330 miles away. It appears passengers were told to disembark in Yola but many were not happy about the potential overland journey to their scheduled destination.
I’m not shocked or offended about the use of the gun, but I do wonder why that was necessary. Why not just close the cockpit door (in the video, it is shown opening and closing several times)? I understand that a group of irate passengers banging on the flight deck door is not ideal, but the accidental discharge of a weapon would inflict far more damage (on both people and on the aircraft itself).
CONCLUSION
You can perceive based upon the way the Jordanian Air Marshal holds the weapon (off trigger, on safety) that he is well-trained. Even so, it just seems like a bit overreaction to dealing with (justifiably) angry passengers. Then again, it’s probably not the captain’s fault that the flight diverted. Bottom line: I’m glad more U.S. Air Marshals are not pulling guns on planes.
(H/T: One Mile At A Time)
Just another day on Spirit. Oh, wait…I mean JetBlue? Frontier? Bueller?
He really should have pulled his mask up. You know, Be Safe !
This ain’t Kansas….
I think Ted Cruz is planning to use this as a training video, but he’s going to tell everyone the cockpit door is actually the front door of a school.
You can’t judge the marshal’s action from a US point of view when these were Nigerian angry passengers. The marshal may have more experience in where these situations go and he made sure they didn’t escalate any further. Actually, give the recent events in the US……..do I need to say more?
He is just doing his job.
I would feel very safe with him on board.
As I’ve said before, one group is X amount of the population and commits 5x the percentage of violent attacks and murders compared to other groups. This applies all over the world. We see what happens in Nigeria on a daily basis online. I would not trust angry Nigerian passengers raiding the cockpit. Why Saudi Arabia feels the need to have flights to Nigeria and probably import Nigeria workers instead of use Saudis, I don’t understand.
Do tell us – what group is it that commits 5x their allocated quota of violent attacks and murders? Perhaps your compatriots who raided the Capitol? I’m sure you’d trust them.
These aren’t Nigerian workers – they’re pilgrims coming back from Mecca. Besides, if the Saudis (or any of their Middle Eastern cousins) actually did any of their own work, they would have no need to “import workers”. You certainly don’t understand – no idea why someone so ignorant of the world is on a travel blog.
Correct.
‘Amy Fischer’ doesn’t understand very much at all – she is commenting while knowing nothing about Nigeria, Saudi, or the international airline industry.
He did his job well. You can’t just take a risk on letting people into the cockpit even if parked on the ground. Pulling a gun was what he needed to do to deescalate the situation.
“A Jordanian Air Marshal pulled a gun on passengers who _were_attempted_ to enter the cockpit to speak to the captain about a diversion. ”
Should be “had attempted”
or
“were attempting”?
The officer should have had their badge out, hanging from neck, so they could be more easily identified as a law enforcement officer. The Air Marshal could have accidentally been mistaken for a hijacker. The airline and passengers were lucky this situation did not escalate.