Life as an aeronautical engineer, examining jetliners and certifying them ready for take-off, can be stressful. What more when you’re doing it at gunpoint!
That’s exactly what happened to retired Malaysia Airlines (MAS) engineering deputy director Sitham Nadarajah 50 years ago when Japanese Red Army (JRA) terrorists hijacked a Japan Airlines (JAL) flight.
It was Aug 7, 1975 and Sitham got a call from Cess Morgan, then MAS engineering director.
“I was told to lead a team to inspect and certify a JAL DC-8 aircraft bound for Tripoli, Libya via Colombo, Sri Lanka, for a refuelling stop.
“The shocker came when Cess informed me that the JAL flight that landed three days earlier from Tokyo, had been hijacked by five JRA terrorists who had broken out of prison.”
Morgan said the terrorists were heavily armed, and that the aircraft might be booby-trapped. He also asked Sitham if he was up to the task.
“Without much thought, I accepted the assignment and roped in two of my trusted technicians,” said Sitham, who was then a shift engineer at the aircraft overhaul department at the Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport in Subang.
Sitham was informed that the JAL flight would carry several other JRA terrorists – and their hostages – who had earlier sieged the American International Assurance (AIA) building in Jalan Ampang, where the US and Swedish embassies were located.
On Aug 4, JRA terrorists had stormed the building, taking 53 embassy employees as hostages, and demanding the release of their five leaders imprisoned in Tokyo.
They threatened to kill all hostages – including Swedish charge d’affaires Frederik Bergenstrahle and US consul Robert Stebbens – if their demands were not met.
“When we arrived at the parked JAL aircraft in Subang, we were met by two stocky JRA terrorists – armed with semi-automatic pistols and hand-grenades – who wore head and face masks.
“My walkie-talkie was immediately snatched as we were frisked and thoroughly body-searched at gunpoint.
“We were warned not to communicate with anyone and follow instructions, or else be shot!” said Sitham, who turned 79 on June 15.
Terrified, he conducted his inspection of the aircraft and engines, gun pointed at him: “What if the gunman tripped or accidentally pulled the trigger?”
When inspecting the cockpit, Sitham and his technicians were warned against using the aircraft’s radio communications system to relay information to the authorities.
After completing their tasks, the crew rested in the aircraft’s first-class cabin, and were later served delivered meals.
“The JRA terrorists did not touch their meals and only consumed it an hour after us, to ensure the food and drinks were not spiked or poisoned.
“Our movements were restricted, and we were escorted even for toilet visits, with the doors opened.”
Time moved “awfully slow”, he said, and finally, they were given clearance for take-off to Benghhazi Airport in Tripoli.
“The Japanese JAL crew arrived shortly after, and I briefed the pilots on the aircraft’s serviceability and certification,” said Sitham. Soon, the hostages boarded the aircraft.
Then deputy transport minister Ramli Omar, home ministry secretary-general Osman Samsuddin Cassim and MAS flight operations director Captain Hasan Ahmad accompanied the hostages to guarantee their safe flight to Libya.
“I was also to accompany the flight. Fortunately, the JRA terrorists showed mercy and let us go after thanking me and my team,” said Sitham.
After the flight landed without incident in Tripoli the next day, all the hostages were reportedly released unharmed.
That 1975 incident was not Sitham’s only harrowing experience serving with MAS, after joining the airline as a pioneer in 1971.
Two years later on Dec 4, 1977, he and politician Mohd Khalid Mohd Yunus “miraculously” missed the hijacked MH653 flight at the Penang International Airport, enroute to Subang that crashed into a mangrove swamp in Tanjung Kupang, Johor killing 93 passengers and nine crew.
The Boeing 737 jetliner’s Captain GK Ganjoor and co-pilot First Officer Kamarulzaman Jalil were reportedly shot by JRA hijackers as the flight was diverted to Singapore’s Paya Lebar Airport.
Khalid, who turned 82 on March 26, had cancelled his flight owing to by-election campaigning at his Jempol constituency in Negeri Sembilan.
Sitham, who was then serving as MAS line maintenance manager, gave special thanks to his mother N Pathmavathy as she had coaxed him to board a later flight that night so he could spend more time with her.
Along with his brother Selvarajah and father S Nadarajah, Sitham was in Penang visiting his mother, who was recovering from surgery.
