From: zehntel!tivonne@decwrl.dec.com (Tivonne Ha)
Subject: Re: [NEWS/VN] Hijacking plane en route to HCM city.
Originator: daemon@media-lab.media.mit.edu
Reply-To: zehntel!tivonne@decwrl.dec.com
Organization: SCV Relay
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1992 03:37:09 GMT


Dear SCV friends:

Don't you think that the below news of Ly' To^'ng (correct spelling)'s
capture in VN a beginning of some important happening?  "An action
whose time has come"?

I heard from a friend that LT's background is quite
impressive, that:  
  "He recently finished his Ph.D. in Pol Sci from Univ of New Orleans,
  under prof. Stephen Ambrose, who himself is a famous historian.
  LT was a captain the South Vietnamese army.  He was sent
  to reeducation camps and escaped several years ago.
  His plight was printed in the Wall Street Journal, the Readers Digest,
  Se'lection (in France), Das Besta (in Germany),  Bangkok Post (in
  Thailand).  Just this summer he graduated with a PhD, after earning two
  BA degrees in French and Political Science,  and a Master's degree in
  international relations."

Given such well-rounded background, maybe he did what he did to 
achieve a lot of publicity, both internally and internationally?
Rumor has it that people in Saigon are spreading rumors about impending
revolts.

I wonder how to make this case draw the attention from the American press
it so deserves.  Then who knows what could happen, right?
Maybe his courageous action alone will create enough psychological effects for
quick changes.  Maybe we could all help further this cause as well?!
Maybe, just maybe, this is what we are waiting for:  Some ignition that'll
end in a big BANG!?!  [I know, lotsa MAYBIES and no definite answers.]
Pls share with me what you think and ways to further the cause.
Tivonne

---
[Forwarded news from Nhan Tran]
Subject: NEWS/VN: Hijacking plane on route to HCM city
Date: 8 Sep 92 14:06:44 GMT

09/05

POLICE CAPTURE HIJACKER IN VIETNAM

    By Kathleen Callo
    HANOI, Sept 5, Reuter - A man of Vietnamese origin has been captured after
he hijacked a Vietnam Airlines plane over Ho Chi Minh City to distribute
leaflets, then parachuted out of the aircraft, residents of the city said on
Saturday.
[...]
    The private Bulgarian air company, Jess, which leased the Airbus to Vietnam
Airlines, confirmed in Sofia on Friday that the hijacking had taken place.
[...]
    The residents said the hijacker grabbed a woman flight attendant on the
plane, wrapped piano wire around her neck and forced her to the cockpit. He made
the crew open a cockpit window, then threw leaflets out.
    "He said he wanted to liberate Vietnam," said another resident, contacted by
telephone.
    The hijacker forced the crew to circle low over the city five times, before
making the flight attendant open a door in the cabin for him to parachute out.
	[...]
    None of the crew and 200 passengers on board was injured.
    The residents said the man, in his mid-40s, landed somewhere on the
outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City and was captured by police two hours later.
[...]

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

09/07

VIETNAM TO PROSECUTE ITS FIRST HIJACKER

    By Kathleen Callo
    HANOI, Sept 7, Reuter - Vietnamese authorities were preparing on Monday to
prosecute the country's first hijacker, a man believed to have been a pilot in
the former South Vietnamese air force, Hanoi airline officials said on Monday.
    The Vietnam-born man, Ly Dong, was captured in Ho Chi Minh City after he
hijacked a Vietnamese Airlines plane, forced it to circle low over the city,
dropped anti-government leaflets from the crew's cockpit window and then escaped
by parachute, airline officials said.
	[...]
    Vietnamese Airlines flight VN 850 had left Bangkok with 115 people
passengers and crew and was approaching Ho Chi Minh City on Friday when the man
pulled out a knife, said he had a bomb and forced a flight attendant to take him
to the cockpit, airline officials said.
	[...]
    The man threw leaflets out of a cockpit window that urged people to rise up
and overthrow Hanoi's communist government, residents said.
    He then jumped out of an emergency exit in the cockpit as the aircraft flew
at 400 mph (650 kph), 2,000 metres (6,600 feet) above the ground, airline
officials said.
	[...]
    "This hijacking seriously violated Vietnamese and international laws on
civil aviation. The hijacker will be duly punished by law," the official Vietnam
News newspaper reported on Monday, quoting Vietnam Airlines.
    After the plane landed safely in the early evening at Ho Chi Minh City's Tan
Son Nhat airport, Vietnam Airlines told reporters only that there had been a
mechanical problem and that a door on the aircraft was broken.
	[...]
    Vietnamese Airlines officials said the hijacker was familiar with the
cockpit controls of the Airbus 300 and was believed to have been an air force
pilot for the U.S.-backed South Vietnamese government, which was defeated by the
communists in 1975.
    They said he had apparently carried the parachute on board the plane in his
hand luggage from Bangkok and appeared to be an experienced parachutist.
---

Newsgroups: soc.culture.vietnamese