1985 Airplane Hijacked Passenger Is Freed & Comes Home. A Survivor Not A Hero
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- Опубликовано: 20 сен 2024
- Tom Cullins was a passenger on a TWA flight on June 13, 1985 coming out of Athens, Greece, an airport that was known to have less than stellar security. Most airports didn't think it was necessary. His plane was hijacked by Hezbollah extremists representing the Lebanese Shia. During the days of their captivity, what the world witnessed was shocking and brutal. Passengers were killed and tortured on the plane as it sat on the tarmac. When they were released after a negotiation that included Pres. Reagan, everyone in the USA watched this moment on national television. The passengers had witnessed violence and murder. Their families watched the live TV, television cameras catching it all.
I don't remember much about this moment these days but I do remember Tom Cullins saying several times, including in front of a hometown crowd in Burlington, Vermont, that he was no hero but merely a survivor who lived through what must have been for all of them, pure hell. He went on to become an artist and his work is available by googling his name.
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The honesty of one man, telling his truth so humbly is refreshing in these days of so much hype. I remember this incident, and wondering how the passengers could possibly come out of it with sanity intact. To be a survivor is no small thing. Thank you David.🖤🇨🇦
I don't remember this. My dad was on a hijacked flight in the mid 80's. It took off from New Orleans headed for Dallas, but made a U-turn and went to Cuba instead. He bought us all souvenirs in Cuba. Mine was a mug, as I collected mugs at that time. It was rather lightweight, and didn't hold much liquid. I don't have it anymore. He bought himself a couple of colorful baseball caps, one of which he often wore in his later years to keep his head warm. I do still have that. I don't remember what he brought home for my brothers or my mom from that experience. I was just a teenager back then, and didn't understand the seriousness of the situation. No one died in this hijacking. The hijacker claimed to have a container of gasoline that he threatened to ignite: that was the impetus for turning this flight. I heard about it on the news, and brought it to my mom's attention. She was concerned, but not hysterical. She held it together pretty well.
The 70s and 80s was full of hijackings and kidnappings, it seemed. Growing up in 'rogue' countries as a child, I was made highly aware of this, lol. Now, it's gone digital.
@@Meganh1458 It seemed exciting to me. My dad rarely had to travel, so the odds of him being on such a flight were slim to none. I'm sure my mom was more freaked out than she let on.
Dad said he had asked a flight attendant if they were being hijacked. He may have worded it "going to Cuba." It was nighttime, they had made an obvious turn, and were flying over the ocean which of course had no lights. Anyone with a sense of geography knows there's no ocean between New Orleans and Dallas. The flight attendant did not confirm or deny what was going on.
Speaking of 9/11, my memories of that day are also a little bizarre. I found out about the first crash just as I was pulling up to the parking garage at DFW International Airport, there to pick up a friend I had been house sitting for. On the radio, they announced that it was an American Airlines flight out of Boston, and he was flying AA from Boston! I was freaked out for a few minutes, got inside to luggage claim, the TVs there (probably CNN) had the actual flight number, so then I knew it wasn't his flight. Back then you didn't have to be flying to go into the secure side of the airport, and I went inside to wait for my friend. His flight had already landed, but they didn't unload the plane for quite some time, seemed like at least an hour. I watched the second plane hit, and started feeling rather antsy. There wasn't anybody in the airport. When they had grounded all traffic, seems like everybody cleared out rather quickly. I wandered in and out, watched TV a little and wandered some more. Finally my friend got off the plane, and he was quite shaken. Happy to see me, but bothered that he had been in the same airport as those insane suicidal hijackers.
@@Meganh1458 Yes, I can't imagine how the people in NYC felt that day. I remember being shocked, as if a total stranger had slapped me hard and fast, for no obvious reason. And the way crime has increased in the last few years, I almost expect something like that to happen to me. Or something worse.
Another poignant note concerning all this: in 2002, when TSA was created, I got a job with them as a checkpoint screening officer. (The hiring process was all kinds of screwy, I got 2 weeks paid leave at the beginning, and they completely over-hired then fired a bunch of people...) At the beginning of our orientation, there was a slide show of the events of 9/11 with a mournful background song, something by Enya. On the day of 9/11, because of all my antsy wandering, I hadn't been in front of a TV to see everything that happened... so during this slide show was the first time I became aware that people had been jumping from the Twin Towers. These pictures stunned me, and I started tearing up during the slide show. Months later, I would be haunted by those pictures anytime I heard that song by Enya, which was occasionally played at the airport. I don't know if any of my coworkers felt haunted by that song, most of them probably had already known about the jumpers, but that song was for me a reminder of the extremely somber reason that we had our jobs. I worked there for 13 years, and many of the newer screening officers didn't seem to have an appreciation of the seriousness of the job, or the reason TSA was created. In fact, there's a new term these days: "quietly quitting" one's job, which means doing the bare minimum to stay employed. The newbies seemed to have that attitude upon arrival during my latter years there. And while CRT was not yet a labeled thing, they seemed to be ushering in equity by getting rid of their best screeners, so that the workforce could be equally substandard. But I guess they are doing a decent enough job. I haven't heard that any US flights have been hijacked or bombed.
Not until after I left TSA did I hear any of the information that cast shade on that infamous day. It does appear to me that there is a good chance that it was an inside job. I don't buy into the hologram aspect of this theory, but other parts make it highly suspicious. I doubt we will ever find out for sure though. But it does seem like a perfect way to usher in the Security State, just like COVID may have been arranged to usher in a Biomedical Security State. After all, Fauci did announce early in Trump's term that there would be a pandemic before his term was over, and sure enough it happened. Hmmm...
As one of my favorite alternative media personalities says: Question everything, come to your own conclusions. Be vigilant.
I was only born a year later, so obviously don't remember that, but unfortunately have, from afar, witnessed enough other incidents where humans inflicted the worst upon others.
It always ticks me off to see how much we have distorted language. A hero is someone who actively prevents or ends a horrible situation, often by risking his own life and limb.
There is no shame in not being a hero! There is no shame in being simply a victim or a survivor! Sometimes just making it through is the best you can do. And Tom Cullins and the others deserve our respect for that alone!
Wow just loved the way he told ppl he wasn't a hero but a survivor!
I remember this. THANK YOU, Mr Hoffman. ❤️
Wow!!!! Thank you for this video! ☺️
He said it right. After 9/11 all the people in the towers and crashed flights were called heros. It really ticked me off. They were victims.
Some were heroes.
He is at least partially heroic for honestly admitting that he was not a hero. Heroes were the passengers on United Flight 97. On Sept 11, 2001, they tried to take back control of their 757 from the Al Quaeda terrorists who had hijacked it; but their plane crashed in Pennsylvania before they succeeded.
How interesting to see. Thank you very much for sharing David. ♥️
Thank You for posting this we should never forget what happened!
Great video! Thank you! I miss the 80s very much! Such different times.
Great footage thanks for sharing another great moment.
Lucky fellow to have survived! I appreciate this short historic video, bc I'd much rather remember Tom, than brutal extremist trying to make a name for themselves
Was that Bernie introducing him?!
I recalled when this was broadcast on the evening news Tom Cullins a true survivor of a horrific act carryout by Shiite Hezbollah terrorists' extremists
Robert Dean Stethem was a United States Navy Seabee diver who was murdered by Hezbollah terrorists during the hijacking of the commercial airliner he was aboard, TWA Flight 847 on June 14, 1985. In memories of Robert Dean Stethem November 17, 1961 - June 15, 1985
Wow, I remember when this happened. Thanks for the video Mr Hoffman.
Poor guy, was probably emotionally numb.
Its easy to say what you would do in that situation, but in reality, a lot would freeze up. Terrifying.
I was on board the U.S.S.South Carolina going in circles off the coast of Beirut for 71 days while this was going on.
I was 9 in 1985 I probably didn't watch the news much but my dad did he was glude to the tv when the news was on. Thanks for sharing this David Hoffman film maker.👍👍📸🙂
You and I were the same age. I recently found my 4th grade journal entry about the Challenger explosion. We watched that live on TV at school. I don't remember this incident, but the video clips sure brought back a lot of memories of being a kid that year.
I remember. And I cried
I don't get it, why was the plane hijacked anyway. Anyway im just glad they survived.
The start of a new form of Muslim extremism and extremist organizations. It was very scary at the time.
David Hoffman filmmaker
Wow thats quite terrifying, an extremist that will one day determine the fate of not only the country, but the world.
Thanks David
Seems like a survivor, not a VICTIM
I didn’t know about this.
June 1985, not July, I believe.
2:28 that's Bernie Sanders!
Wow! His daughter kissing him. Wow!
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What I still cannot for the life of me understand is how the terrorists smuggled pistols and a grenade on to the aircraft.Why didn’t the x ray machines at Athens airport detect them?
I travelled to Athens Hellenikon airport in 1988…had security improved by then?…if not my flight could also have been hujacked!😮
His behavior is particularly odd, I’m sure he was very relieved to have survived, but still, I wouldn’t have been so happy considering the loss of the others...
Nobody knows how they would react in such a situation. He went from figuring he was a dead man, to suddenly being home and greeted with media and his family. Who knows what he was like out of the glare of the spotlight.
It seemed to me he was relieved to see his family again, and in the first wave of freedom let himself have that moment. How many nightmares did he have after this? How did he deal with the inevitable PTSD? Don’t fault the man because he survived when others didn’t…none of it was his choice.🖤🇨🇦
@@tamarrajames3590 Yes, you’re very right. Though I don’t think I was faulting him per se, but I just thought it was odd, but of course you’re right, and he probably was just extremely relieved that he survived
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I don't know the details yet until I watch this, but you'd think they could give a guy a break, hasn't he been through enoguh? Everyone surviving something that you might not be able to is enough to earn you the benefit of the doubt in my book.
Man looks like Loki
Doesn't sound like he just saw fellow passengers murdered and tortured. Dude sounded chipper as hell
@@thealternative9580 so big that you couldn't hear gun shots/screams or know that just twenty rows ahead people are being tortured.
Not saying he's fake, just that his tone is unexpected.
👆🏼...this is a big deal!! 🥲TY David 😇
💔💔❤🩹❤🩹❤❤❤🙏🙏🙏