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Woman stabs pilots on NZ flight

A Somali immigrant tried to hijack a New Zealand domestic flight yesterday, stabbing both pilots, threatening to blow up the twin-propeller plane and demanding that it fly to Australia before she was subdued, police said.

The wounded pilots were able to land the plane safety in Christchurch, a popular tourist city, where police and emergency crews rushed onto the tarmac to arrest the suspect, evacuate the six other passengers and search the plane for bombs.

The airport was closed for about three hours. No bombs were found aboard the plane.

The pilot suffered a severely cut hand in the attack and the co-pilot was injured on the foot, Christchurch police Commander Dave Cliff said.

One passenger suffered a minor hand injury caused by the attacker, Cliff said. He did not explain how the woman was subdued.

Air New Zealand, the national carrier which operated the flight through a charter company, said it was reviewing security measures nationally following the incident. In New Zealand, passengers and their luggage on short-haul flights are not subject to security checks.

Cliff said the 33-year-old woman attacked the pilots about 10 minutes into the flight from the city of Blenheim, 70km south of Wellington, to Christchurch, about 350 km south of the capital.

After the woman was subdued on board, the pilots made emergency radio calls reporting that she said there were two bombs on the plane, Cliff said.

Army and police bomb squads later searched the plane and the luggage, but found no explosives.

The woman demanded to be flown to Australia, a destination beyond the Jetstream aircraft's range, Cliff said.

The woman, who was not identified by name, was a Blenheim resident, he said.

She was charged with attempted hijacking, wounding and other offenses and was to appear in court in Christchurch today, police said.

The passengers included four New Zealanders, an Australian and an Indian national.

"Today's incident, although a one-off, has naturally given us cause to conduct a thorough review of our safety and security systems and processes on regional domestic flights," said Bruce Parton, Air New Zealand's general manager of short-haul airlines.
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