The First Assault, Terrorists - 16, Assault Teams - 4
So this was it! This was what we had trained for. A four team assault on a hijacked aircraft, going in as stealthily as possible before bursting in, using noise, aggression and speed to overwhelm the terrorists and take them out before they could harm the hostages. We had been trained and drilled and knew what our various tasks were and the appointed assault leader had given us our briefing. Except that, given the teams were made up of leaders within their respective fields we ended up all arguing over the best way to the job done.
Now I don’t know if you’ve ever seen two grown men arguing but it can be an amusing sight. Now consider 16 of them at it, some with their respirators on, all coming up with various better ways of getting into the plane and shooting people…As the plan was revised for the fifth time a few of us just sat back and resigned ourselves to the fact we were going to get thoroughly creamed in there. I was now really looking forward to it… I was first man in on our team meaning I’d definitely be getting at least a full clip from a terrorist’s gun.
AMD's Sean Stacey decides who he's going to shoot first...So being super sneaky, we all set off creeping along with our assortment of ladders and equipment. Once everyone was in place we all gingerly laid our ladders into position, against the wing roots, up against the rear doors and then climbed up ready to go. It was rather comforting to feel the 2nd man in my team climb up close behind me, flashbang ready in his hand as I’d be the guy unlocking the door and totally exposed in the doorway for a few seconds until we could all pile in.
We got the go signal and launched ourselves up the ladder, the door was open and I followed the flashbang in…
The inside of the plane was nearly pitch black as all the shutter blinds had been pulled down and our eyes didn’t have time to adjust. The flashbang went off a few feet in front of me and I turned to the left where it was most likely to have lots of bad guys… And that’s when the terrorist hiding in the rear toilet peeped his gun out of the doorway and stitched me all across my back and shoulder… I was dead. The number two man spotted him though and took him out before the rest of my squad managed to get in a secure the rear of the plane and further down towards the front, the fun and games were really kicking off.
Two teams assaulted on the wings, coming in from each side. They went in together and then got muddled as to who was going which way… and all the time they were under fire from the terrorists. The upshot was that as the remaining three of my team moved to secure the rear of the plane, they came under fire from one of the wing teams. All the while, untouched by anyone, one of the terrorists was working his way systematically up the plane shooting the hostages, represented by balloons, as he went. In the darkness it wasn’t until he bumped into the lead man on an assault team that he was stopped and shot.
John MacAleese, patiently pointing out that plane... again. You know, he can kill with just his little finger...So hardly an inspiring finish, and as we all clambered off the plane, we got another swift lesson. One of the teams had managed to capture a terrorist alive and had him kneeling on the tarmac. The majority of us were milling about until this enterprising chap, realising no-one was paying him much attention, jumped up, pulled a pistol from one of our guy’s holsters and shot three team members before legging it… We were left to ponder on just how bad we were as the ‘hostage’ balloons did the only sensible thing and got the hell away from us on a strong breeze…