1960: Australian Pilot Stops Hijack By Punching Terrorist In The Face And Ripping Wires Off Bomb

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A Trans Australia Airlines Lockheed L-188A Electra, similar to the plane that a man tried to hijack in 1960. Source: Wikimedia Commons

Hijacking planes was a pretty new concept in 1960, but when a bomb-toting freak tried to pull something on a Trans Australian Airline flight, he got a knuckle sandwich from some very brave Ozzies. It's a story that couldn't happen today -- the would-be hijacker's attempt was low-tech, the security was clearly lacking, and the pilot who decked him clearly hadn't been bingeing on Homeland. It was simple old-fashioned heroic problem-solving. This is the story of Trans Australia Airlines flight 408.