[Rhodes22-list] Memphis News

[brad haslett]

Some interesting news happening here in Memphis this
week.  I've attached some clippings from the local
media.  There are some other disturbing events that
have transpired in the last few weeks that are not
available for public consumption.  The "evildoers"
have certainly not given up on another 9/11.  The last
article is a reprint about an attempted highjacking in
1994. The article doesn't mention an important fact. 
The previous days crew (which the highjacker was a
member) went over 8 hours of flying in a 24 hour
period and was illegal to fly the trip the following
day.  The F/O on that trip is a good friend of mine. 
Had she and her captain flown the trip, there would
have been only the two, instead of three against the
attacker and the outcome might have been quite
different. Interesting reading if you have the time.

Brad

---------------------------------

MEMPHIS, Tenn. A federal magistrate has ordered a
University of Memphis student held until trial. 
Prosecutors say F-B-I agents found an airline pilot's
uniform, a chart of Memphis International Airport and
instructional D-V-D's. One was titled "How an Airline
Captain Should Look and Act."

Mahmoud Maawad is charged with wire fraud and
fraudulent use of a Social Security number.

Describing what agents found, Assistant U-S Attorney
Steve Parker argued yesterday against releasing
Maawad, saying the acts and circumstance of the case
are "scary."

Parker said Maawad -- a 29-year-old Egyptian -- has
been in the country illegally since 1999 and had used
a phony Social Security number to enroll in schools
and open a bank account.


The Memphis Flyer has a breaking news report:

Was Mahmoud Maawad a University of Memphis student and
pilot-wannabe with a passion for flying small planes
or an Arab terrorist looking to duplicate the suicide
missions of 9/11? 
Federal prosecutors in Memphis aren’t saying, but on
Thursday they asked a U.S. magistrate to hold Maawad,
29, whose email logon is “pilot747,” without bond
until trial. U.S. Magistrate Judge S. Thomas Anderson
agreed with Assistant U.S. Attorney Steve Parker, and
Maaward becomes the second Memphis resident of Arab
descent to be held without bond because of
investigations by the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force.
In April, Rafat Mawlawi was jailed in a separate
investigation in which prosecutors have linked him to
Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaida. He is awaiting trial on
October 3rd.


More:

Maawad was busted again this week after federal agents
searched his apartment and computer on September 9th
and examined his Internet purchases of flight
instructions and pilot paraphernalia. Since June,
Maawad ordered $3,300 of merchandise over the Internet
from Speedy’s Pilot Shop in San Diego, including a
private pilot course, flight simulator software, a
flight gear bag, several DVDs, a $239 Navy leather
flight jacket, a $19.95 DVD on “How an Airline Captain
Should Look and Act,” and instructional programs on
“airplane talk.” His email address was
pilot747_200 at hotmail.com. 
After purchasing approximately $2,500 worth of
merchandise, Maawad’s debit card was rejected by
Speedy’s for lack of funds and his last three orders
were not filled. Agents are in the process of
examining his computer hard drive.

---------------------------



The Bloody Ordeal of FedEx Flight 705

Author: Patrick Worden
Published on: September 7, 2001 
 
Flight Engineer Auburn Calloway knew his career was
about to end. His employer, Federal Express, had
recently uncovered a series of irregularities and
outright falsifications in both his original
employment application and in hundreds of hours of
flight records. He was ordered to appear at a
disciplinary hearing in the second week of April,
1994. He understood that the likeliest outcome of such
a hearing would be his termination, and subsequently
the loss of his FAA flight certification.

His solution was as simple as it was horrifying. He
would provide for his family financially, end his own
life, and in the process he would punish FedEx in the
worst way imaginable.

April 7, 1994: FedEx Flight 705 was scheduled to
depart the company’s home hub of Memphis, Tennessee
for a routine flight to San Jose, California at a
little after 3:00 in the afternoon. As Captain David
Sanders, co-pilot Jim Tucker and engineer Andy
Peterson boarded the aircraft, they were somewhat
startled to see Auburn Calloway already on board,
settled into the flight engineer’s station and
initiating pre-flight procedures. Although it was not
unusual for FedEx employees to hitch rides on regular
flights—a practice termed “jumpseating”—it was a
pronounced breach of protocol for such deadheaders to
interfere with flight operations. They said nothing,
though, and Calloway wordlessly gave his seat to Andy
Peterson. He strapped himself into a jumpseat aft of
the cockpit. At his feet was a guitar case, the only
baggage he had brought on board.

Less than thirty minutes into the flight, the
bloodbath began.

The weapons that Calloway chose for his attack seem
bizarre and indicative of a deranged mind. When one
understands the cold calculation of his plan, though,
the terrible logic becomes clear. The guitar case
contained two claw hammers, two sledge mallets, a
knife and a speargun. Calloway could have easily
smuggled a gun on board Flight 705, but he wanted to
inflict no injuries that were inconsistent with an air
crash—for that was at the heart of his plan. Having
already purchased thousands of dollars worth of death
and dismemberment insurance, he planned to bludgeon to
death the crew of Flight 705, then crash the DC-10
into the terminal of the Memphis Superhub. His own
death would secure his family’s future, while the
devastating crash would likely destroy FedEx. But
first he had to kill the crew; it was their will to
survive that foiled Auburn Calloway’s plan.

None of the three men heard Calloway enter the
cockpit. Sanders suddenly became aware of a struggle,
and heard the awful sound of hammer blows raining down
upon his crewmates. He turned to see both men slumped
in their chairs, injured terribly, and a blood-soaked
Auburn Calloway moving toward him.

Calloway swung wildly at Sanders. Some of the blows
landed, some were deflected. The plane lurched as
Sanders desperately tried to defend himself. Then
something happened that Calloway had not counted upon.
Tucker and Peterson recovered and began fighting back.
Calloway was surrounded; he flailed about with the
hammer, still inflicting gruesome injuries. The men
would not give up, though, and Calloway at last
retreated from the cockpit. 

Sanders, Tucker and Peterson scarcely had time to
register what had happened—they didn’t even have a
chance to radio for help—before Calloway returned. Now
armed with the speargun, he threatened the men who
were advancing upon him once again.

“Sit down! Sit down! This is a real gun, and I’ll kill
you.”

Andy Peterson was bleeding from nearly a dozen wounds
to his face and head. He teetered on the brink of
consciousness, and couldn’t even see Calloway, who was
only a few feet away. He could see the speargun,
though—he could see the barbed steel shaft that
protruded from the barrel just inches from his face.
He grabbed at the weapon and threw himself on top of
Calloway.

Captain Sanders joined the fray as Jim Tucker
struggled to control the airplane. By now, Tucker’s
right arm was nearly useless as the grave injuries to
his skull brought on paralysis. He knew that his
wounded crewmates could not last long against
Calloway, so he assisted the only way he could. He
pulled the control yoke all the way back to his chest,
and rolled it to the left.

The DC-10 was executing a barrel-roll at nearly 400
miles per hour—something the aircraft had never been
designed to do. Peterson and Sanders were shouting
“Get him! Get him!” to each other, as the three
struggling men were tossed about the galley area,
alternately weightless and pressed upon by three times
their weight in G forces. By now, the aircraft was
inverted at 19,700 feet, and the alarmed air traffic
controllers in Memphis were desperately calling for
Flight 705.

Tucker initiated a series of wild maneuvers. He knew
he had to keep the craft’s motion unpredictable, or
Calloway would simply wait for the roll to end then
resume his attack. Tucker abruptly threw the yoke
forward, and sent the plane into a vertical dive. He
realized then that the throttle controls, located to
his right, were pressed forward to their stops; he
could not reach them with his limp right hand. The
diving DC-10 accelerated past 500 miles per hour, then
past the instruments’ capacity to register. Flight 705
was now traveling faster than any DC-10 had ever gone,
and was undergoing velocity stresses that the airframe
could not sustain.

Somehow, Tucker pulled from the dive, then reached
across the yoke with his left hand to cut speed. At
last he grabbed a radio headset and called Memphis. 

Flight 705 turned back for Memphis and was cleared for
any runway. No one on the ground understood what had
happened—all they knew was that an unnerved crew
member had reported some sort of “attack,” and had
requested an emergency landing.

A paramedic boarded the plane, and found blood and
gore everywhere he looked. Sanders and Peterson were
laying on top of a still-struggling Calloway, while
Jim Tucker sat shaking at the co-pilot’s station.
Calloway was handcuffed and hauled away.

Within days, the FBI searched Calloway’s apartment and
uncovered detailed evidence of his plan. Calloway
would attempt to have that evidence suppressed for
lack of probable cause, but was unsuccessful. He was
convicted on a two-count indictment of air piracy and
interference of flight operations. Auburn Calloway was
sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility
of parole, and is currently residing at the federal
penitentiary in Atlanta. 

Sanders, Tucker and Peterson had survived a suicidal
act of piracy, but at a terrible cost. Sanders
suffered multiple lacerations to his head, had been
stabbed in his right arm and had a dislocated jaw. His
right ear had been almost completely severed.

Jim Tucker’s skull was severely fractured. The
right-sided paralysis would pass, but he would
experience ongoing motor-function impairments to his
right arm and leg. He was also blinded in one eye.

Andy Peterson also suffered a skull fracture, as well
as a severed temporal artery.

None would ever fly again.

 



		
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