US man hijacks small plane in Belize, stabs 3 people before he's shot dead

Authorities astatine the Philip S.W. Goldson International Airport (P.G.I.A.) accidental they were alerted to a U.S. antheral who was hijacking a tiny level in Belize on Thursday.

The antheral stabbed 2 passengers and a pilot, earlier 1 of the stabbed passengers fatally changeable him, according to officials successful Belize and the United States. The rider was licensed to transportation a firearm and aboriginal turned his limb implicit to the police.

"We are praying for him," Chester Williams, Belize constabulary commissioner, told reporters. "He’s our hero."

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A presumption of the Philip S.W. Goldson International Airport successful Belize City, taken connected April 17, 2025.  (JOSE A. SANCHEZ/AFP via Getty Images)

Williams identified the hijacker arsenic Akinyela Taylor and said helium was a U.S. subject veteran, a study by The Associated Press said. U.S. officials could not corroborate the Belize constabulary commissioner’s connection that Taylor was a subject veteran.

The aerial formation Cessna Caravan V3HIG from Corozal to San Pedro had 14 passengers and 2 unit members onboard, the connection from P.G.I.A. said.

A afloat exigency was declared instantly aft the incidental started and the craft circled successful random directions for astir 2 hours until yet landing safely astatine the P.G.I.A., according to a connection by the Belize Airport Concession Company.

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Tourists queue astatine the Tropic Air antagonistic astatine Philip S.W. Goldson International Airport successful Belize City connected April 17, 2025.  (JOSE A. SANCHEZ/AFP via Getty Images)

U.S. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said astatine a quality briefing successful Washington that officials were inactive gathering accusation astir what occurred.

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"Horrifying," she said. "We are grateful, I deliberation each of america are, that it did not crook into a wide casualty lawsuit with, I believe, implicit a twelve radical connected the plane. Clearly we cognize a fewer details. We don’t cognize overmuch more."

U.S. officials said they did not cognize the motive for Taylor’s hijacking but were moving with Belizean authorities to find what happened.