Akinyela Sawa Taylor, who stabbed three people on a Belize flight, is rumoured to be a US veteran and teacher, and less than two years ago published a book with a troubling message about a ‘vision’
Many people hate flying, harbouring fears of crashes, turbulence, or terrorism. And one of those fears came true for 14 unlucky passengers and two crew members who found themselves hijacked at knifepoint soon after takeoff.
The plane started circling as the incident unravelled, and was even followed by a helicopter towards the end of its journey as police communicated with a passenger via text. Pilot Howell Grange was one of the three people stabbed during the horrifying flight, but miraculously managed to land the plane despite deep wounds on his right arm, back, and even his face. While there was no loss of life on the plane bar the knifeman himself, many people remain unsettled as authorities try to figure out many mysteries behind the hijacking.
A US citizen has now been identified as the man who hijacked a Tropic Air flight in Belize on April 17. In the terrifying incident, Akinyela Sawa Taylor, 49, revealed and brandished a knife, going on to stab pilot Howell Grange and two passengers, named as Fitzgerald Brown and Jair Castañeda.
There’s an ongoing investigation in place in both America and Belize, with many questions still unanswered. Police state that just days prior to his attack, Taylor had been denied entry into Belize – so how did he get himself into the country?
It’s also said that Taylor pulled the knife in an attempt to get the domestic flight to refuel and leave Belize, but unknown where he wanted to go and why. Most obviously, authorities are still trying to figure out his motivations and how he got the knife onto the plane.
Taylor is now dead, having been shot in the chest by a fellow passenger who was legally carrying a firearm – preventing what could have been a mass disaster with 14 passengers on the small Cessna Caravan V3HIG utility aircraft. Despite police not being able to question the hijacker, some details of his past have emerged.
Police Commissioner Chester Williams spoke at a conference after the horror flight, and said it seemed that Taylor was a US veteran, who, in photos of his passport, was born in California on February 19, 1976. Meanwhile, the US Embassy, who are helping Belize in their investigation into Taylor, said that it had no details on Taylor’s background or motivation, according to Reuters.
The outlet reports that Philip SW Goldson International Airport, which declared a state of emergency at the time, had shed more light on his past. The airport claimed that Taylor worked as a teacher, having previously coached football at the McCluer North High School in Florissant, Missouri.
The Ferguson-Florissant School District has released a statement on Taylor’s employment, clarifying that he was an assistant football coach at the high school from June 2018 to February 2019, but is “no longer affiliated with the District in any capacity,” according to Channel 5 Belize.
Taylor’s family has also now spoken out, expressing shock at the news and claiming he seemed in good mental health just a couple of weeks before carrying out the hijacking.
His nephew, from St. Louis, Missouri – an area where Taylor is known to have many connections – said: “I don’t think he would do something like this. He was okay when I last saw him two weeks ago. He wasn’t on any medication. No signs of PTSD. This is a big shock to me and the rest of our family.”
In a strange twist, Taylor also recently appeared to have published a book about redemption partly based on his own experiences. Journey of the Mire: The Calling was released on August 14, 2023 under the pen name Tommie Taylor III, and features a main character called Akinyela alongside including a photo of Taylor on the back.
In one section of the novel as available on Amazon, Tommie Taylor III wrote: “The vision had etched itself in Akinyela’s soul, a beacon of purpose that burned brighter than any star in the sky. It beckoned him to embark on a perilous journey through the Mire, a treacherous landscape of swamps, murky waters, and ever-shifting paths.”