The authorities of the Philip Sw Goldson International Airport (PGIA) say they were alerted to an US that was kidnapping a small plane in Belize on Thursday.
The man stabbed two passengers and a pilot, before one of the stabbed passengers shot him fatally, according to the officials of Belize and the United States. The passenger had a license to carry a firearm and then delivered his gun to the police.
“We are praying for him,” said Chester Williams, Belize police commissioner, to journalists. “He is our hero.”
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A view of the Philip Sw Goldson International Airport in Belize City, tasks on April 17, 2025. (José A. Sánchez/AFP through Getty Images)
Williams identified the kidnapper as Akinyela Taylor and said she was an American military veteran, according to an Associated Press report. American officials could not confirm the statement of the Belize police commissioner that Taylor was a veteran military.
The Air Flight Cessna Caravan V3hig from Corozal to San Pedro had 14 passengers and 2 crew members on board, said PGia’s statement.
A complete emergency was declared immediately after the incident began and the plane took a turn in random directions for approximately two hours until it finally landed safely in the PGIA, according to a statement by the Belize airport granting company.
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The tourist’s tail at the Tropic Air Counter at the Philip Sw Goldson International Airport in Belize City on April 17, 2025. (José A. Sánchez/AFP through Getty Images)
The spokesman for the United States Department, Tammy Bruce, said at a news conference in Washington that officials were still collecting information about what Esccrred.
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“Horrible,” he said. “We are grateful, I think we are all, that it did not become an event of massive victims with, I think, about a boxes of people on the plane. We clearly know some details. We do not know much more.”
American officials said they did not know the reason for the kidnapping of Taylor, but they were working with the Belizeñas authorities to determine what happened.
Associated Press contributed to this report.