_{(Top l-r) CEO Francis Usher – National Security and Border control; and Director Nigel Carter – Civil Aviation Authority; (Bottom l-r) Deputy director Stanley Gideon – Civil Aviation Authority; and Major Ruben Cowo – JIOC commander}

by William Ysaguirre (Freelance Writer)

BELIZE CITY, Mon. May 5, 2025

Air travelers will eventually pay the cost of the new security measures being implemented by the Belize Airport Authority (BAA) in the wake of the Holy Thursday, April 17, hijacking of a Tropic Air domestic flight, admitted Chief Executive Officer Narda Garcia of the Ministry of Civil Aviation at a press conference addressing the incident at the Best Western Biltmore Plaza Hotel in Belize City on Wednesday afternoon, April 30.

The April 17 hijacking of a Cessna Caravan aircraft with 15 people on board, which resulted in 3 persons injured and the hijacker shot dead, was Belize’s closest equivalent to 9/11, and the Belize Airport Authority has immediately implemented pre-flight screening of passengers with walk-through metal detectors and handheld electronic wands at all of Belize’s airports. The Authority has allowed that it will be able to absorb the cost for one year; but these security protocols will then be out-sourced to a private security firm, a cost which the domestic airlines will eventually have to pay, and which will inevitably be passed on to the air travelers.

The press conference also served to begin a public awareness campaign to inform the general public of what items cannot be taken aboard an aircraft, as Director Nigel Carter of Civil Aviation Authority explained. The new security measures ban passengers from bringing aboard certain items into the passenger cabin, much like the list of items that a sports fan would be restricted from bringing into a sports arena, but a more extended list. This means no bottles, no liquids, no weapons, no sharp or pointed objects that might be used as a weapon, no incendiary device, nor even a cigarette lighter! There is no smoking in the cabin. Some of these items may be allowed in checked-in luggage to be stowed in the aircraft’s cargo compartment, but passengers will need to verify with the airline, what is permitted, and what is not. The new pre-flight checks have also added an hour or more to check-in times.

The Authority made a full sweep of all aerodromes used by commercial airlines on Friday, April 25, to identify the best and most efficient way to ensure the safety of passengers and the security of the aircrafts for all domestic flights in Belize, in many ways mimicking the procedures already in place for international flights. All hand baggage will be searched for any prohibited items. This is being done by hand, until the airlines can obtain x-ray scanners for luggage. A licensed firearm owner must declare if he is carrying one, and this is a bit of a grey area, as to whether a firearm would be allowed in checked-in luggage, but definitely not in the cabin. Air passengers will have to get used to having their bags searched, and female passengers might not take too kindly to security personnel delving through all their unmentionables in their purses and tote bags. Airlines may choose to require that all bags be checked in to be stored in the cargo hold, to minimize misunderstandings.

The BAA also intends to improve the reporting of any incidents of unruly passengers, to have more data on the travelling public; and some recalcitrant individuals, whom the airlines identify as problem passengers, may find themselves on a no-fly list in a shared database, which would have input from the Police Department. Director Carter admitted that the new security protocols are a work in progress, which they will tweak as they go along. In the 20/20 vision of hindsight, the Tropic Air company might wish that the hijacker Akinyela Taylor had been on a “no fly” list, but the airlines had no knowledge of his other interactions and conflict with border agencies, which had not attracted the attention for him to be placed on a no-fly list in Belize.

Major Ruben Cowo,  Commander of the Joint Intelligence Operations Center (JIOC) described how all the security forces – Police, Belize Defence Force and Coast Guard worked together with the Air Traffic Control at the Philip Goldson International Airport, which closed Belizean airspace to all other flights until they were able to bring the hijacking to a peaceful conclusion, with minimal loss of life, in which only the hijacker was shot dead, and all the other passengers and the pilot survived.

 “It was a dynamic situation … many moving parts … things were changing each minute as it progressed, but JIOC did an exceptional job at, one – coordinating within the security forces, two – coordinating within each ministry, three – coordinating regionally and internationally, all at once”, Chief Executive Officer, Francis Usher of the Ministry of National Defence and Border Security said. 

The security forces were prepared for any possible outcome, such as that the aircraft might run out of fuel, and the pilot might have to ditch the aircraft at sea. The Coast Guard patrol boats were out at sea, ready to respond to such a contingency. Police and BDF units were at all airstrips and airports, wherever the hijacker might order the pilot to land.

Heroic pilot Howell Grange saved the day and all the passengers’ lives by his poise under pressure, and his bilingual ability to talk to Air Traffic Control in Spanish, by which he tricked the hijacker into believing that he was communicating with Mexican ground control for a flight plan to the USA, as Deputy Director of Civil Aviation Stanley Gideon explained. Grange’s clever ruse worked, as he was able to convince the hijacker that he was requesting clearance from Mexican authorities to enter Mexican airspace en route to the USA. He also asked Belizean ground controllers to pretend to be United States’ Air Traffic Control with an American-sounding voice. Grange flew the aircraft on a serpentine path for the next hour and a half, out over the sea where the hijacker would be unable to identify any landmarks, and back over land, always in Belizean airspace, with the voices on the radio leading the hijacker to believe they were heading for the USA.

Matters came to a head when Grange informed ground control that he was low on fuel with only 20 minutes flight time left. The traffic controllers at PGIA put on their best American accent to convince the hijacker that they were landing at an American airport. The hijacker forced Grange to climb back up out of his landing approach when he recognized that they were not landing at Lambert International Airport in St. Louis, Missouri. The aircraft remained in the air for eight more minutes, before a wounded and bleeding Grange was able to set it safely down at Philip Goldson International, where a passenger shot the hijacker with his licensed pistol and the rest is history. All passengers jumped from the aircraft as soon as it touched down.

The stress level for the air traffic controllers was unprecedented, but they remained calm and “strictly professional … for two hours straight.”, Gideon affirmed. Their unequivocal professionalism was simply amazing, Gideon declared.