Inside the Cockpit of Belize’s Most Terrifying Flight

One year ago on Holy Thursday, what should have been a short, uneventful Tropic Air flight from Corozal to San Pedro became a nightmare at several thousand feet; one that would forever change Belize’s aviation history. Today, we’re not just revisiting the frightening headlines; we’re stepping inside the cockpit with the man who lived through it. Pilot Howell Grange is speaking out on this difficult anniversary, opening up about the trauma that followed the hijacking; months of pain, restless nights, and scars that still haven’t fully healed. In an emotional interview, Grange also shares a journey few expect: learning to forgive the man who nearly cost him his life. And as the memories resurface, he’s confronting the biggest question of all, will he ever fly again? News Five’s Paul Lopez has our story.

 

Paul Lopez, Reporting

One year ago on Holy Thursday, Belize woke up to the unthinkable, a domestic Tropic Air flight hijacked midair. What should have been a brief trip from Corozal to San Pedro spiraled into a hundred-minute nightmare as a knife-wielding American passenger, Akinyela Sawa Taylor, attacked those onboard and demanded the plane be flown to the U.S. Disaster loomed. But at the controls, Captain Howell Grange held the line. His courage helped avert catastrophe and a year later, the weight of that morning still follows him.

 

On the Phone: Howell Grange, Pilot, Tropic Air

“I have a lot of trouble sleeping. I sleep but intervals, a two, three hours, get up for an hour, go back to sleep, usually that is the routine. Then after a three four days, I get a full-length sleep, after my body get tired. I guess I still have flashbacks now and then.”

 

Taylor stabbed Grange during the hijacking. But he was able to keep the aircraft stable while bleeding and under threat. In the face of the chaos, Grnage managed to circle Belizean airspace and keep Taylor calm, even pretending to follow the hijacker’s demands by communicating with the tower in Spanish to create the illusion of a U.S.-bound flight. Grange still has flashbacks one year later.

 

On the Phone: Howell Grange

“The time gets closer and my mind gets flashback more. A year has passed and I am still in recovery. By this time I thought I would be up and running more, but I am moving around better. But, like I said I thought I would be in a better place. I guess I never anticipated the time therapy would take, mental and physical.”

 

When the plane finally landed at the Philip Goldson International Airport, the ordeal ended in seconds. Injured passenger Fitzgerald Brown, a licensed firearm holder, shot and killed Taylor. Captain Howell Grange and two other wounded passengers survived. In the days that followed, Belize rallied behind its pilot, hailing him as a hero, with his West Landivar community giving him a homecoming to remember.

 

On the Phone: Howell Grange

“I surely appreciate life a lot more. I mean, you never know when will be your last day and that day surely, surely could have been my last day. With the help of everybody on board and everybody doing their part, we pulled through. We really did pull through everything and I appreciate everybody on board. Everybody did their small little part, I had the whole weight on my back, but everybody did their part. I cant take that away. I cant take this on my own.”

 

But heroism, Grange says, doesn’t erase trauma. He says that somedays he misses flying and somedays he relives the experience all over in his mind.

 

On the Phone: Howell Grange

“It is surely an experience I do not want to experience again for sure. I miss it sometimes, but sometimes I really don’t miss it when I think about what happened. I put in my head, I survive one and I don’t want put myself in a situation again where I have to survive another one.”

 

Months after his release from the hospital, Grange continued therapy and rehabilitation, at one point traveling to Western New York to rebuild strength and mobility after the stabbing injuries.  Even now, he says he’s chosen grace over anger, finding a way to forgive the man who nearly ended his life.

 

On the Phone: Howell Grange

“A few months after, I decide to forgive him. You can’t judge a man to the last few hours of his life or his last few days. I mean, maybe he was a great father, a great uncle, a great husband. You never know. I have never looked into his background and I likely never well. But personally I do forgive him and that is the only way I could have moved forward in life.”

 

One year later, the Holy Thursday hijacking remains one of Belize’s most dramatic aviation events, but for Howell Grange, it is also the story of survival, faith, and a quiet determination to reclaim the life he had before. His courage remains a testament to the strength of the human spirit. Reporting for News Five, I am Paul Lopez

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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