Mike Thexton says he has finally found out why his life was spared in the 1986 hijacking.
Mike says during the hijacking he "said goodbye in my mind to all my friends and relations"A hostage held at gunpoint in the fatal Pan Am flight 73 hijacking in 1986 has found out why his life was spared.a New York-bound plane was taken over by Palestinian militantsBriton Mike Thexton, 63, has spoken to the hijacker who held him at gunpoint as part of a Sky documentary.
While waiting for take-off, he said he was "still standing beside my seat, trying to get a book out of my hand luggage, and I heard a disturbance of some sort in the second doorway where the economy class passengers were coming in, and I looked up and saw an armed man struggling with a flight attendant".
"I thought about just sitting there and and hoping they wouldn't be able to recognise me but, I knew, they know I'm on the plane because I've handed in a passport and they will find me," he said.The hijackers made him kneel for 12 hours in front of the plane door, which was slightly ajar, while they talked on a radio with negotiators.
"I didn't think that he took any notice of that. He was was busy with his agenda and I was pretty well irrelevant to him apart from as a bargaining chip," he said.More than 36 years later, the hijacker who had held him at gunpoint finally revealed why he spared Mike's life when they spoke for the documentary.
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