One More Flight--’Don’t Jinx It’ : U.S. Professor, Hijacked Twice, Is ‘Tired of Flying’

American professor Landry T. Slade said Thursday that he is “tired of flying” after he and his son got off one hijacked airliner in the Mideast only to find themselves on another hijacked plane hours later.

Slade and his 16-year-old son, William, were aboard a Jordanian airliner when it was commandeered Tuesday by Lebanese gunmen. Shortly after being freed Wednesday, they boarded a Lebanese plane to Cyprus that was seized by a lone hijacker identifying himself as a Palestinian.

Slade, assistant president of the American University of Beirut, and his son arrived Thursday at London’s Heathrow Airport after surviving the back-to-back hijackings en route to a vacation in New York.

‘Don’t Jinx It’

“I’m tired of flying, but I’ve still got a bit more to do before I get home,” Slade said. “Don’t say anything about that (New York) flight; just don’t jinx it.”

No one was injured in either hijacking.

The first hijacked plane, a Boeing 727 belonging to Alia, the Jordanian airline, was about to leave Beirut international airport for Amman, Jordan, early Tuesday when the gunmen took control. The plane carried eight security guards, but it is not known whether they made any attempt to foil the hijacking.

The five Shia Muslim air pirates ordered the pilot to fly to Cyprus and Sicily, where the plane was refueled, and made several futile attempts to land in Tunisia, which refused landing permission.

The plane finally returned to Beirut, where the hijackers allowed the security guards and later the passengers and crew to disembark safely 29 hours after the drama began. The hijackers then blew up the plane on the airport tarmac.

Hijacked Again

The Slades later boarded a Lebanese-owned Middle East Airlines jet, and it was hijacked shortly before it landed in Larnaca, Cyprus, by a man brandishing a handgun. The Slades and most of the other passengers left the Boeing 707 as it taxied to a stop. The hijacker later gave up.

“It was an unusual experience, to put it mildly,” Slade said. “However, we did not know that we had been hijacked for a second time.

“Nobody saw the hijacker go into the cockpit, and we only found out when we got to Cyprus, but everything was OK,” he said. “He was disarmed and there were no problems.”

Other passengers, however, said they had seen the hijacker rush to the front of the plane with a hand grenade.