Terra! Terra! Terra!

Mid-air bomb threat, stabbing drama

An armed woman who hijacked an Air New Zealand flight demanding the pilots take her to Australia tampered with the aircraft's controls, making it difficult for the pilots to land.

Two pilots and a passenger were injured during the hijacking. At least one of the pilots and the female passenger were stabbed with a knife the woman was allegedly armed with.

The woman allegedly started her attack on the pilots 10 minutes after take-off from Blenheim. She was seated in 1A, directly behind the pilots.

One pilot was tonight in surgery for cuts to his hand.

Police arrested the woman, a 33-year-old Blenheim resident originally from Somalia, after she allegedly caused 20 minutes of mid-air terror, stabbing two pilots on a flight from Blenheim to Christchurch and threatening to blow up the plane.

There are two remarkable things about this situation: 1. this is the first attempted hijacking in NZ history and 2. there is no screening for domestic flights at most NZ airports.

It'll be interesting to see how this plays out here.