_{Akinyela Sawa Taylor, deceased}

An American national was shot and killed by a passenger on the flight after the plane landed at the Philip Goldson International Airport (PGIA) in Ladyville.

by Charles Gladden

BELIZE CITY, Tues. Apr. 22, 2025

A US national hijacked a Tropic Air domestic aircraft with its pilot and 14 passengers on board, shortly after the plane departed from the Corozal Airport in Ranchito Village, and headed to San Pedro Town on Holy Thursday, April 17.

Around 8:30 a.m. that Thursday, the US army veteran, 49-year-old Akinyela Sawa Taylor of St. Louis, Missouri, boarded the plane normally with its other passengers, who included Belizeans and American tourists.

_{(l-r) Howell Grange, Jair Castañeda and Fitzgerald Brown}

Shortly after takeoff, Taylor pulled out a knife and threatened the pilot, Howell Grange, demanding to be taken out of the country and flown to the US. The plane would remain in the air for approximately two hours, during which the pilot made attempts to convince Taylor that he was heading to the U.S. before dwindling fuel forced a landing at the Philip Goldson International Airport (PGIA). During and near the final portion of that period of sheer terror, Taylor brutally stabbed Grange and two other persons on the flight: Fitzgerald Brown, a passenger; and Jair Castañeda, a manager at Tropic Air.

When the plane landed at the airport, most of the passengers rushed out and were met by armed law enforcement officers ready to detain Taylor; however, the knife-wielding, agitated US national was fatally shot by Brown, who was armed with a firearm.

“I must say, as the plane landed, it ran out of fuel. So, God is good,” said Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police. “What we gathered from one of the passengers who was injured is that as the plane landed, he shot the hijacker. He had a licensed firearm, and so he shot the hijacker, and he also handed his firearm over to us. Sadly, that passenger is in a critical condition because he was stabbed in the back, and his lungs seem to have collapsed. He has been rushed to the [Belize] Medical Associates. He’s our hero,” Williams added.

Taylor entered Belize earlier this month on an American Airlines flight from Miami, Florida, and sometime during his stay in the country, he attempted to enter Mexico through the northern border but was denied entry. He subsequently remained in the Belize Free Zone, where he became agitated and disruptive, but was never detained or charged, according to ComPol Williams.

Taylor booked a return flight last week, but was kicked off the plane after he began to cause an uproar. During his final days alive, he was spotted in Belize City asking for directions on how to get to the airport and Corozal, before he eventually boarded the Tropic Air flight.

How Taylor got on board with the knife is a question that has been posed by many Belizeans. Commissioner Williams noted that passenger searches have been primarily conducted only at the PGIA, but said that such procedures will now have to be carried out even at the smaller airstrips.

“This is going to be something that is going to be discussed intensely at the next National Security Council meeting. I know we have commenced dialogue in terms of looking at our local flight security. The time has come for us to look at it more in-depth and see what adjustments can be made. I’m sure that there’s going to be input from the airport authority in this respect. So, it’s a matter more for the National Security Council to determine what is to be done moving forward, where security on these planes is concerned,” he said.

ComPol Williams further mentioned, “… It is only at the PGIA where you have to pass through a kind of [screening] to board a flight. At these airstrips, they don’t have that kind of security, so maybe the time has come to look at that in that direction to ensure that we have security measures at every airstrip once it is used for commercial purposes.”

Public Affairs Officer at the US Embassy in Belize, Luke Martin was present at the PGIA following the landing of the plane and told local reporters that so far the only insight they have into Taylor’s motives is that he was trying to return to the US.

“We don’t have any information on him at all. I think the name has been released, of course, but we don’t know the situation. We don’t know why he wanted to go back to the United States or what was the reason, and for right now we don’t have any more information on that … This is something that the Belize authorities … we trust them to resolve and to look at as well. We share that commitment with them to make sure Belize is safe, the airlines are safe and tourists come in here safe, borders are safe and secure. This is all part of that as well; it highlights the importance of that big investment that everybody is making, time and money,” he said.

The three persons stabbed by Taylor received various injuries, with Grange reportedly receiving, among his other injuries, a stab wound to the face and tongue during an apparent attempt to slash his throat, but almost a week after the incident took place, all three victims have reportedly been discharged from the hospital.