As the copilot opened the door, the man swiftly pushed him back into the cockpit and slashed the man across the throat sending the short, stocky copilot to the plane’s floor with blood flowing from his throat. He was dead in seconds. After realizing what was happening, the pilot, still in his seat, turned around and rushed to defend himself. The fifty-six year old pilot was a veteran of the Air Force, but age had stolen some of his agility. Shaking violently, the pilot swung out his right fist to try to hit the attacking man, but strapped in his seat and with little room to move, the pilot’s punch missed weakly. Not only did the punch miss the pilot’s intended mark, but it also left the pilot open to the attacker. Peering through tiny-rimmed glasses, the pilot could only watch in horror as the attacker swiped down at him with the knife slicing into his chest. The pilot’s uniform was covered in blood.
With the pilot and copilot dead, the plane gradually slid off course to the left, out of control, although too slight for any of the passengers to notice. With his business carried out in the cockpit, the terrorist dropped his bloody knife and stepped out of the cockpit and slid the door shut.
With quick, long steps, he strode back to his seat, once again passing the flight attendant who still lay on the ground from his forceful blow. Reaching his seat, he didn’t sit down but rather stopped momentarily and peered at Dr. Zaumner sleeping peacefully in her seat. Instead of sitting down, the attacker reached down at her laptop. The light-sleeping Dr. Zaumner snapped awake feeling her laptop being lifted from her lap.
Before she even knew what was really going on, she nervously spoke, “What are you doing?”
The large, tanned man never considered answering her question. Reaching back into his jacket, the man pulled out a small firearm. Before Dr. Zaumner could react, the attacker yanked the gun’s trigger twice sending a bullet through the laptop into Dr. Zaumner’s abdomen and a second bullet into her chest. She immediately slumped over with blood seeping from her wounds. The fired shots instantly woke everyone in the plane. Once all the passengers grasped what was happening, screams and shouts were heard throughout the plane. The danger of the situation wasn’t even realized by the passengers as they couldn’t imagine that the plane was soaring through the sky without pilots.
Back in the cabin, nearly every passenger ducked beneath his or her seat trying to find some kind of protection from the terrorist. The flight attendants also sought shelter. Everyone was stunned that a man could get a gun onboard. While the gunman stood over Dr. Zaumner, Jenny Zaumner sat horrified, too scared to move. After the attacker had picked up the laptop and assured it was destroyed, he turned his attention to her, who was staring wide-eyed at him.
The terrorist raised his gun and aimed it at her. Assured that this was how she was going to die, Jenny watched in amazement, as an athletically built blond-haired man slammed the terrorist to the ground from behind.
