The hijacking of Haunzen Flight 356 is a terrorist incident depicted in the Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway movie.
Chronology[]
Haunzen departs[]
Haunzen Flight 356 departed Von Braun on April 19th of U.C. 0105, and was bound for Hong Kong. Flight 356 was a special flight carrying multiple Earth Federation cabinet ministers and officials who were making their way to Adelaide for the Adelaide Conference, the 25th official meeting of the cabinet. Among the VIPs aboard Flight 356 were Minister Karl Eyinstein, Minister Logan McGovern, Communications Minister Sauli Stahlberg, Public Health Minister Hiram Mescher, and Jupiter Development Agency Director Douglas Higgins. Other notable passengers included Colonel Kenneth Sleg of the Earth Federation Forces, Gigi Andalucia, Chief Hundley Yeoksan of the Criminal Police Organization, and Hathaway Noa.
The hijacking[]
Shortly after Flight 356 entered Earth's atmosphere, a ORX-005 Gaplant surreptitiously approached it and planted a boarding capsule on the hull before breaking away. Within the capsule were six terrorist hijackers who entered Flight 356 via a dorsal hatch. The terrorists quickly stormed the craft, killing its two security guards, as well as breaching the cockpit and killing the three pilots. While one of the hijackers assumed control of Flight 356 under the protection of two compatriots, the other three hijackers secured the passenger compartment. One hijacker, an individual wearing a pumpkin mask who falsely identified himself as Mafty Navue Erin, spoke for the group and identified them as Mafty. The fake Mafty ordered the passengers to remain in their seats and explained that they would not be killed, but held for ransom.
As the lead hijacker checked the passenger manifest, he was drawn into an argument with a derisive Gigi Andalucia. Minister Hiram Mescher then stood up and tried to reason with the lead hijacker, but in vain. The lead hijacker brutally gunned down Mescher to silence him, which caused the minister's wife, Beatrice, to panic and knock herself unconscious by running into a closed door. At the lead hijacker's demand, Hathaway volunteered to clean up and secure Mescher's corpse. When Beatrice Mescher regained consciousness, she immediately embraced her husband's body, but her loud crying provoked the ire of the volatile hijacker, causing him to shoot her dead as well.
Before the hijackers could claim any more lives, Gigi urged Hathaway to act, calling the terrorists "a bunch of fakes". This distraction allowed Hathaway to incapacitate the lead hijacker and use his weapon to shoot another hijacker in the head. Kenneth disabled a third hijacker while Hathaway sprinted to the cockpit with the second hijacker's weapon. At the cockpit, he shot a fourth hijacker and wrestled a fifth into submission. However, he did not realize that there was a sixth hijacker, the one piloting the craft. As the sixth hijacker trained a pistol on Hathaway and the fourth hijacker began to recover, Kenneth arrived in time to shoot the sixth hijacker dead.
Haunzen lands[]
Flight 356 was redirected from its original destination of Hong Kong to Davao, Philippines. Despite the killing of the pilots by the hijackers, the craft landed safely. The passengers and crew disembarked using an inflatable emergency slide, and the Earth Federation Forces swiftly took custody of the surviving hijackers to preempt the Bureau of Investigation. As they waited to leave the craft, two of the passengers discussed how the hijackers had allegedly been planning to fly Flight 356 to Australia.
Aftermath[]
An investigation into the hijacking was begun by the Bureau of Investigation, with Chief Hundley Yeoksan taking point. All passengers were asked to remain in Davao overnight while their witness statements were collected and transfer flights were arranged, and they were given rooms at the Tasaday Hotel & Resort. This placed Hathaway Noa in a delicate situation, as he was the real Mafty Navue Erin and his cover story that he was traveling to Manado in Indonesia for biology research would not hold up for long under the investigators' scrutiny. Hathaway made contact with other Mafty members and arranged for Mafty to attack the hotel that night in an apparent assassination attempt against the Earth Federation officials from Flight 356 who happened to be staying there, which would be a diversion for Hathaway to slip out of the city. Although the attack was successful and the officials and cabinet ministers were killed, Hathaway refrained from making his escape over his desire to protect Gigi. Hathaway later left Davao by alternate means and reunited with Mafty.
References[]
Please read the linked project page before editing this article.
Project Leader: User:Char Aznable 1