Hijack drama described by hostage

Press, 7 April 1979, Page 2

Hijack drama described by hostage

J>A . Wellington The hijack hostage, Suzanne Chisholm, has described hours of drama with a knifewielding man at Sydney Airport on Wednesday.

A nurse, Miss Chisholm, aged 22. said that the man tried several times to assure her he did not want to kill her. He had said that he was holding the knife at her throat only to keep the police at bay. Miss Chisholm said that she used her nursing experience to try to calm the man. She had not resisted him, but had tried to appease and quieten him. “I felt sorry for the man. He wasn't well,” Miss Chisholm said, on her arrival at Christchurch Airport on Thursday afternoon. The hijacker, Domicius Sperantzo. aged 35, an Australian citizen of Italian descent, had complained during the siege just inside the door of the first-class section of a Pan American Airways jumbo jet that he had not been treated properly in Australia. He wanted to fly to Russia after having an audience with the Pope in Rome. Miss Chisholm said that although Sperantzo had held the knife at her throat, he had said nothing about injuring her. They had talked during the drama, but Miss Chisholm said that she was hazy about details, although her throat had been nicked by Sperantzo’s knife.

She had run to freedom after a police officer grappled with Sperantzo. She and the officer had managed to calm Sperantzo. and he had slightly relaxed his grip. The policeman lunged for Sperantzo and during the scuffle she tore herself free and ran from the aircraft.

Sperantzo was shot dead by the police as he attempted to light the fuse of a homemade bomb. Miss Chisholm said that she did not want to discuss details of the drama. The implications of what had happened were only now beginning to hit her. She sought only her parents’ home at Waimahaka. near Invercargill, and relaxation. She will still attend her brother’s wedding today — the reason for her return to New Zealand from a nursing job in Canberra. Miss Chisholm said that she was considering a big offer from a newspaper group for exclusive rights to her story. Her arrival at Invercargill ended a long and worrying day for her parents. They had known nothing of their daughter’s unwilling role in the attempted hijacking until a Wellington reporter telephoned them. The anxious parents attempted to find out what had happened, but were unsuccessful.

The Chisholms had to rely on information given to them by reporters until their daughter telephoned them from Christchurch Airport.