The perfect hijack

Dr Jane M Ferguson

It was 10 November 1990: Thai Airways flight TG305, Bangkok to Yangon, scheduled to take an hour and 15 minutes. Twenty minutes after take-off, afternoon meal service had just begun. Flight attendants pushed service carts through the aisles of the Airbus A300, placing meals on the passengers’ tray tables, and taking drink requests. Suddenly, the two young men seated in 23E and 23F sprang up. One of them ran to the front of the cabin – first mistaking the lavatory door for the cockpit door – while the other held a ceramic doll in his left hand, with protruding wires attached to a switch in his right, “This is a hijack! I have a bomb! We’re not afraid to die!”.

The young hijackers, Soe Myint and Htin Kyaw, were part of the generation of Burmese student activists that led the massive 8 August 1988 (8-8-88) uprising against Ne Win’s Burmese Socialist Program Party regime. The demonstrations gained momentum and resulted in a general strike and precipitated Ne Win’s resignation, followed by a bloody army crackdown killing thousands and a military coup by the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC). During the suppression, thousands of activists fled to the border areas controlled by ethnic armed organisations, later to temporary refugee settlements on the Thai side of the border. Soe Myint and Htin Kyaw fled too, and had been in exile in Thailand since.

A year earlier, on 6 October 1989, other Burmese students in the name of democracy had hijacked a Union of Burma Airways domestic flight from Myeik to Yangon and diverted it to U-Tapao military airfield outside Bangkok. Nobody was injured, Thai authorities did not extradite the hijackers, and they served light prison terms until Thai King Bhumiphol gave them a royal pardon. As for the plight of democracy in Burma, the rest of the world did not seem to care. The SLORC held elections, Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy won in a landslide victory, but the military junta would not cede power.

Returning to the moment of the hijack of TG305, Thai flight attendant Pornsuang was in section BC when Soe Myint rushed past her. Another flight attendant came up to her and said, “One passenger must be crazy! He said he has a bomb!”. In the commotion, some passengers were bewildered while others thought it was a comedic drama. It was not until the captain announced on the PA that the plane had been hijacked that people believed it. The flight was diverted to Calcutta, India. Upon landing at Dum Dum Airport, the atmosphere improved, though the event would not finish for another 10 hours. Htin Kyaw communicated with Soe Myint via written notes, and Pornsuang delivered each message, also serving as the primary contact between Htin Kyaw, passengers and people on the ground.

Meanwhile in Bangkok, a handwritten ‘Warrior Operation Declaration’ was delivered, and circulated among police and officials.

It had been left with a Burmese comrade before the hijackers departed. It outlined the plight of people in Burma, and concluded:

“Down with military dictatorship and the real democratic government based on stability and peace must be established in Burma. Thank you very much, Sincerely and Truly, Ye Yanaung, Ye Htin Kyaw, Ye Marn – thumbprints in blood – Justice and Liberty Warriors.”

During the 10-hour hostage situation on the ground, Pornsuang shuffled back and forth between the hijackers. She also worked to keep passengers calm. After several hours, the ham and mayonnaise in the meal for the ‘quick-turn’ flight had gone off, so she encouraged some passengers to eat the sugar in the packets served with coffee to keep up their strength.

Pornsuang spent a lot of time talking with Htin Kyaw. Even though he said he had a bomb and was not afraid to die, he still wanted to tell his story, why he was involved in the hijacking. Pornsuang listened to him and talked with him. As she later told me, “I knew instinctively that I could not lie to them, or try any trick. He was the same age as my younger brother. I wanted him to trust me, and he told me about the situation for him and his family in Burma, the refugee camps … they also saw corruption in Thailand, they couldn’t work, they were angry with the police”. The more she talked about it, the more I could see that she identified with the political movement. During the 14 October 1973 uprisings in Bangkok against the military dictatorship of Thanom Kittikachorn, Pornsuang was a student in Bang Saen Teachers College. She joined the protesters at Rachdamnoen Avenue, and during the army crackdown, ran all the way to Saphan Khwai – nearly 10 kilometres – to escape. She knew exactly what it was like to be a student protester against a military regime.

Pornsuang spent a lot of time talking with Htin Kyaw. Even though he said he had a bomb and was not afraid to die, he still wanted to tell his story, why he was involved in the hijacking.

Ultimately, neither Thai Airways, nor its crew, nor any of the passengers ever pressed charges. The Burmese hijackers were given their press conference as requested, and both were granted refugee asylum in India.

Not all members of the flight crew were as involved during the hours of the hijack and hostage situation aboard TG305. Male stewards were told by the hijackers to remain in their jumpseats at the rear of the aircraft, and another flight attendant was so frightened that she mainly hid in the back. Fortunately, and amazingly, it all ended peacefully and the Burmese hijackers eventually surrendered to the police in Calcutta.

Rajat Majumdar, Special Superintendant, Criminal Investigation Department was the first official to meet the hijackers. As he later said in an interview with The Statesman, “I got the shock of my life. They were so gentle and polite. They addressed me as Sir as I greeted them with folded hands. Although I was carrying arms, their innocence overwhelmed and disarmed me. I was literally bowled over by their pleas for restoration of human and democratic rights in Burma”.

Ultimately, neither Thai Airways, nor its crew, nor any of the passengers ever pressed charges. The Burmese hijackers were given their press conference as requested, and both were granted refugee asylum in India. Soe Myint founded Mizzima, a human rights media non-government organisiation, and Htin Kyaw later relocated to Ireland, where he is today.

Pornsuang has not seen or heard from Htin Kyaw or Soe Myint since the hijack, but she describes them in nothing but the kindest of words. “As for my opinion about Burma,” she told me, “I still empathise with the students. I always wonder how Htin Kyaw is doing. After thinking about it, maybe it is Stockholm Syndrome. But the point is that I agreed with their ideals”.

A passenger who was a correspondent for a German news magazine later wrote a letter to the President of Thai Airways:

“… I deeply wish to congratulate you and your company’s well-doing. The captain and the crew did a tremendously good job to turn this event to the nicest hijack in history … Especially I would thank Mrs Pornsuang who succeeded in a magnificent way to calm down the passengers and negotiate with the hijacker. With my kindest regards, Stefan Reisner.”

On a more personal note, in the decades since that day in 1990, Pornsuang visits a Mon Buddhist temple on the anniversary of the hijacking, and makes merit on behalf of Soe Myint and Htin Kyaw. “When I am reborn in a future life,” she explained to me, “I would like to be a flight attendant again.”