I Just Kept Screaming and Kicking

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SPEAKER_2 (1:10)

This program contains subject matter that may be disturbing to some listeners. Listener discretion is advised.

Franklin (1:17)

We were flying down without any fuel from about 25,000 feet.

SPEAKER_2 (1:23)

Real people.

Jeff (1:24)

The cold starts to creep in and you start thinking, well, okay, am I going to get out of this? Am I going to survive this?

SPEAKER_2 (1:32)

Who faced death?

Connie (1:33)

I was looking down the barrel of a shotgun and I was told that I better shut my damn mouth or I'd be killed too.

SPEAKER_2 (1:41)

And lived to tell how.

Franklin (1:43)

These people were psychologically fragile and if they had a bomb, we didn't want them, you know, pulling the plug prematurely because they got rattled.

SPEAKER_2 (1:52)

This is I Survived.

It's November 1996 in Ethiopia, Africa. Franklin and his wife are on vacation in Africa and they upgrade their tickets to business class at the last minute.

Franklin (2:10)

This plane that we were on was going to fly from Addis Ababa to Nairobi an hour and 40 minutes.

And we settled in. The plane was new. It's a 767 It was comfortable.

SPEAKER_2 (2:24)

The plane took off and reached its cruising altitude of 31,000 feet.

Franklin (2:29)

And then I saw this guy come down the right aisle. He's sort of waving his arms. He almost looks like he's a bit crazy, kind of a tall, thin guy. And he's got a shoebox looking thing in his hands with some wire sticking out of it. To be honest with you, it looks like a teenage high school workshop idea of a fake bomb for a high school play or something like that. Then within a few seconds later, on the left hand side, a guy tall, thin comes flitting down, almost gliding down noiselessly, absolutely noiselessly. A total contrast to the other guy. They disappeared up in the front, and we're in the back of business class. You can't really see, and you're nervous. You're wondering what's going on. About 20 minutes later, so that would make it about 1130, and they came on the intercom.

Then they spoke in French, which I don't understand very well, but I could pick up the little gist of it that they were hijackers, and they wanted to go to Australia. I immediately got real nervous because flying to Australia is 5,300 miles away, and I had flown small planes many, many years ago, so I'm sort of interested in aviation. And in the back of my mind, I'm saying to myself, wait a minute, we don't have enough fuel for this.

Initially, I hid my diplomatic passport, my black diplomatic passport, thinking to myself, well, I think this is the time to become a private citizen.

SPEAKER_2 (4:01)

Franklin was the US. Consul General in Mumbai, India.

Franklin (4:05)

The initial reaction of the passengers was fairly blasé, and to be honest with you, fairly early on, I sort of tried to engage a couple of people near me, and it was like they didn't want to be bothered. I think we all did realize, maybe instinctually, that these people were psychologically fragile.

They were on edge, and if they had a bomb, we didn't want them pulling the plug prematurely because they got rattled.

SPEAKER_2 (4:31)

The hijackers forced the pilot to fly out over the Indian Ocean towards Australia.