American Airlines Flight 1933

Samantha Robinson

Edward Robinson

Paisley Robinson

Jody Robinson

Vince Crosby

Ellie Cohen

Belinda L. Askins

Jo C. Allen

Bogdan Abramov

Mikhail Abramov

Walid Al-Ghamdi

Waleed Al-Shabbab

**American Airlines Flight 1933** was a domestic scheduled passenger flight that was targeted in a hijacking attempt by the Islamist terror group Islamic People's Liberation and Resistance Army (IPLRA) on July 4, 2021. The flight was diverted to St. Louis, Missouri, after passengers Konstantin Robinson and Ellie Cohen thwarted the hijacking, but crashed on the runway of St. Louis Lambert International Airport during a battle in the cockpit against the hijackers.

## The flight

### Aircraft information

The aircraft involved was a Boeing 767-200 delivered to American Airlines , which carried a capacity of 158 passengers. However, the flight carried 89 passengers and ten crew members that day. Eighty four passengers survived, while four of the five hijackers were killed by Ellie Cohen and Konstantin Robinson (one died later while en-route to a hospital). The aircraft was scheduled to depart from Cleveland-Hopkins International Airport at 9:35 AM.

### Boarding and takeoff

Hijacker ringleader Ziad Al-Assad and fellow hijacker Jamal Abdulaziz boarded the flight at around 8:30 AM that morning. Exactly two minutes later, the Robinson family-Jerry Robinson and his wife Samantha, as well as their children Jody, Paisley, Edward and Konstantin-boarded. Konstantin's friend Vince Crosby also boarded at 8:55 AM. At 8:58 AM, Vince's friends Ellie Cohen, Belinda Askins and Jo Allen also boarded. They were followed by Saudi terrorist Walid Al-Ghamdi, Chechen terrorist brothers Bogdan Abramovich, and Mikhail Abramovich, Iraqi terrorist Waleed Al-Shabbab and Syrian terrorist Saddam Al-Qureshi. The flight departed at around 9:58 AM, following a twenty-three minute delay.

### Hijacking attempt

According to a series of videos shot by Jo Allen, Jody Robinson, and Belinda Askins, the hijacking began at around 10:20 AM, when the plane was flying over Missouri. Jo's footage shows Ziad Al-Assad signalling to his fellow hijackers Bogdan and Mikhail Abramovich, who proceeded to attack flight attendant Caitlin Read.

Konstantin Robinson, having realized a hijacking was taking place, rushed forward to stop the Abramovich brothers. However, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Saddam Al-Qureshi rush towards him with a knife. Seeing the attack, Ellie Cohen-a former US Marine-then proceeded to incapacitate Al-Qureshi by breaking his arm, before snapping his neck and killing him in front of the Abramovich brothers, both of whom had begun attacking the pilots, Captain Jayden Butler and First Officer Sebastian Stewart.

Upon seeing Ellie kill Al-Querishi, Mikhail was heard shouting the takbir, to which Konstantin-still charging the hijackers in the cockpit-responded by shouting, "Death to Islam!" before ramming Mikhail with his shoulder and knocking him against the airplane's yoke, causing the plane to rapidly descend 685 feet (209 m) in half a minute. According to the cockpit voice recorder, Konstantin shouted, "No!" before battling Ziad and the Abramovich brothers over control of the plane.

Unfortunately, the angle of Jo Allen and Jody Robinson's footage made it difficult to determine exactly how Konstantin and Ellie overpowered Ziad and the Abramovich brothers. The cockpit voice recorder records Mikhail Abramovich screaming and shouting in pain three times in a period of five seconds before being killed by either Ellie Cohen or Konstantin Robinson. Later, Ziad was heard shouting in both Arabic and English, "Hey! Hey! Give it to me! Give it to me! Give it to me! Give it to me! Give it to me! Give it to me! Give it to me! Give it to me!" Exactly three seconds later, the sound of a gunshot erupted in the cockpit, indicating that at least one of the hijackers had either tried to draw a gun and shoot at Konstantin and Ellie or Ellie herself drew a gun and shot one of the hijackers. Satam was heard screaming, "No!" before another gunshot was heard, indicating that either Konstantin or Ellie shot and killed him.

The cockpit voice recorder also picks up the sounds of struggling in the cockpit, indicating that the remaining hijackers were battling Ellie and Konstantin over control of the plane. Ellie was heard shouting, "Get off of him!" before another hijacker was heard screaming in pain. This was later identified as Mikhail, as evidenced by the voice of Bogdan shouting Mikhail's name.

As Ellie and Konstantin's battle against the hijackers continued, Ellie managed to send out a distress call, which was picked up by nearby air traffic controllers at St. Louis Lambert International Airport. This was immediately followed by Konstantin shouting, "Death to Islam" while stabbing one of the surviving hijackers-later identified as Bogdan Abramov-to death. Walid Al-Ghamdi and Waleed Al-Shabbab also starting shouting the takbir while battling Ellie. The cockpit voice recorder indicates that Ellie was attacking either Al-Ghamdi or Al-Shabbab while Konstantin was muttering to himself about pulling the plane out of the dive before managing to contact air traffic controllers at STL Lambert International Airport.

As the sounds of the battle against the hijackers continued, Konstantin was heard shouting, "Shit! We're too low! We are way too low! We're too low, damn it!" Seconds later, the plane crashed on the runway of St. Louis International Airport.

Rescue teams and police running to the crash site found Walid Al-Ghamdi dead, apparently having been killed on impact, while Waleed Al-Shabbab was severely injured and in critical condition. The rest of the passengers survived while Konstantin and Ellie suffered minor injuries; Konstantin was found to have been suffering from a concussion after hitting his head at some point during the battle with the hijackers and Ellie's hand was sprained, possibly while fighting the hijackers in the cockpit.