World's Most Bizarre Country 
2003 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance
World's Most Bizarre Country Contest?
By Waylon Thomas
Jessica Zafra, a writer for the Today newspaper in the Philippines had this to say in her column this week, " Is there some kind of World's Most Bizarre Country contest they forgot to tell us about? Because the way the Philippines has been racking up points these past few months, we're probably the year's front-runner."
The story of the man who hijacked Philippine Airlines flight 812 from Davao to Manila on May 26 is a classic PI tale. This guy boarded his plane in Davao which is in Mindanao and scene of the current battle with Muslim separatist terrorists. As a result, Davao airport is subject to some of the most stringent security measures supposedly available. He still managed to board the plane with a gun, a grenade and home-made parachute. This led to one of the funnier comments, from a Philippine Airlines executive, who was quoted as saying "it is not unusual for our passengers to carry parachutes".
OK......No one knows how he managed to get on board carrying all this stuff. Apparently despite the stringent security measures Davao's metal-detector gate that all passengers must walk through has actually been broken for three months. Rather than get it fixed security staff just pretended it was still working assuming it would act as a deterrent. The hijacker then held up the pilot with his gun and grenade accidentally firing a round into the roof of the cockpit. He said he was having marital problems (his wife had left him for a cop) and was short of cash. He then passed around a hat not once but twice collecting a total of P15,000 (US$340). He then forced the pilot to come down to 6,000 feet, depressurize the cabin and open the rear door. He was intending to jump using his recently created parachute when he suddenly froze.
While standing in the doorway vacillating a quick thinking steward gave him a shove. His home-made parachute separated from his body a few hundred feet below the plane in full view of some passengers. His brother would later be quoted as saying, "he had dreamed of becoming a skydiver but he had never jumped before." They have since found the hotel room where he was staying while dreaming up this scheme. Pieces of canvas and rope were left where he designed this aerodynamic marvel. The following day according to police, "The hijackers body when found was imbedded in the ground feet first. Only his hands protruded." The chute was a kilometer away. No money was found.
If this isn't all enough, Gemma Cruz Araneta, head of the department of tourism said, "The Mindanao hostage crisis and urban tourism has given us free publicity. Bad news is better than no news. It would cost a fortune to get all this free advertisement on CNN." Jessica Zafra mentioned above said further in her column, "It's as if some nefarious organization had put LSD in our drinking water."
Submitted on 05/25/2002
Submitted by:
David DeVito
Reference:
http://www.mangossubic.com/Sto
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