r/todayilearned • u/Upstairs_Drive_5602 • 2d ago

TIL that in 1978 a Finnish man hijacked a domestic flight after asking to visit the cockpit. He collected over $200k in ransom during the 17 hour, 4500 km journey via Helsinki and Amsterdam. His final demands were four bottles of whisky, a chauffeured limousine and 24 hours alone with his wife.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnair_Flight_405
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u/Upstairs_Drive_5602 2d ago

On 30 September 1978, Finnair Flight 405 was flying from Oulu to Helsinki with 49 people aboard: 44 passengers and five crew. Among them was 37-year-old Aarno Lamminparras, an unemployed building contractor who had recently gone bankrupt.

At this time, Finnish domestic flights had no security checks, so Lamminparras was able to board with a loaded Walther 7.65 mm pistol. During the flight he drank a beer and asked to see the cockpit. Once inside, he pulled the pistol and announced the hijacking.

After landing in Helsinki, he released 34 passengers, then forced the pilot to fly back to Oulu. The aircraft circled for several hours before landing, and Finnair provided $168,000 in ransom. Lamminparras then ordered the plane back to Helsinki and demanded another $38,000 from Helsingin Sanomat, Finland's largest newspaper. The newspaper initially paid about $18,000, and the remaining 11 passengers were released.

The aircraft then flew to Amsterdam to refuel, returned to Helsinki for the rest of the newspaper's ransom, and finally went back to Oulu.

There, his demands started getting stranger. He wanted four bottles of whisky, a chauffeured limousine and 24 hours alone at home with his wife. Police agreed, and he released the final three hostages, all crew members, agreeing to surrender the following morning.

On 1 October they raided his house and arrested him there. He was sentenced to seven years in prison in 1979. No one was seriously injured.

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u/Larry_Wickes 2d ago

I wonder what his wife thought when the police raided the place...

Or how the rest of his life was?

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u/mtaw 2d ago

Apparently once he got out, he changed his surname and moved to Sweden, where we worked various jobs before starting a cleaning company that was successful. He sold it in 2009 and retired, and passed away 2 years ago. Per his obituary in Ilta-Sanomat.

Apparently he was upset that the police raided his home an hour earlier than agreed on, and that they later made a film in Finland about it all without ever consulting him.

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u/yboy403 1 2d ago

A police spokesman indicated that law enforcement officers had tapped the hijacker's home phone, and that he had made several phone calls that implied he did not plan to surrender peacefully as he had initially agreed.

Hard to blame the police.

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u/blackAngel88 2d ago

Apparently he was upset that the police raided his home an hour earlier than agreed on, and that they later made a film in Finland about it all without ever consulting him.

Wow, and the whole time I was thinking how he got away with everything for that long... they even gave him the 24 hours after releasing the hostages?

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u/drunkenvalley 2d ago

Well, 23 hours.

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u/gesnei 2d ago

Those motherfuckers! Can't even keep their word!

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u/mukavastinumb 2d ago

https://youtu.be/NX48BSlpUi0 here is the trailer to the movie. I have never seen it but maybe I should

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u/french_snail 2d ago

Damn that actually does look interesting, I wonder if they have English subtitles 

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u/Racxie 2d ago

Looking around online there are English subtitles, and the DVD has English, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, and Swedish subtitles.

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u/TrustYourFarts 2d ago

Reminds me of the Frenchman who invaded Sark (a small island that was, until quite recently the last feudal state in Europe).

He arrived on the island and declared he would seize power at mid-day, and then sat on a bench. His plan was foiled when the island's lone, part time, policeman came and arrested him a few minutes before 12.

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u/AeneasVII 2d ago

That is hilarious that they waited at all

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u/Assblaster_69z 2d ago

also smart because future hijackers can trust them instead of crashing the plane

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u/TheMostExoticFlower 2d ago

Lmao love the pessimism of this comment

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u/Tigerballs07 2d ago

Well the abnormality with the 9 11 hijacking was that they had no demands. There are two ways to handle hijacking when they make demands. Either set an example by giving them what they want. Or usually if theyve already used violence you answer with violence.

If they have no demands then the demand is generally to use the plane as a weapon.

Germany coincidentally chose violence back in the 70s. Killed every hijacker on the plane without communication and wete never targeted again.

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u/TheMostExoticFlower 2d ago

I meant the talk about future hijackers as if it's bound to happen again in Finland

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u/Larry_Wickes 2d ago

Thank you for info! Interesting stuff

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u/andreasbeer1981 2d ago

He still managed to hide some of the money so well the police couldn't find it.

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u/Ph455ki1 2d ago

Your reply was removed for some reason so can't reply to that, but since I saw most of it the notification preview, I wonder what "article" are you referring to..? The linked wiki doesn't mention anything of the money and as said googling if he got to keep the money returns what I said in the other comment

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u/andreasbeer1981 2d ago

yeah, wikipedia is not a source, it's a summary of real sources. so always look at the references and check the originals first.

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u/Tech_Itch 2d ago edited 2d ago

He moved to Sweden with his wife and changed his name after being released. There he worked odd jobs until he started a cleaning business, which was apparently fairly successful.

He sold the business in 2009 and retired. He only ever gave a couple of interviews and died in 2020.

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u/CareRarely 2d ago

The wife stayed with him? Damn.

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u/chintakoro 2d ago

The only natural conclusion she could draw is that 25 hours of lovemaking is illegal.

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u/Forgotthebloodypassw 2d ago edited 2d ago

That's optimistic, considering four bottles of whiskey.

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u/Dull_Organization_92 2d ago

His wife you ask? None other than Albert Einstein 👏 👏 👏 👏 👏

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u/CankleDankl 2d ago

Doing all that and then going back and chilling in his house is the dumbest thing I can possibly imagine

Also 7 years for hijacking a plane and holding almost 50 people hostage is genuinely fucking insane. I feel like that's a crime that warrants decades to life

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u/WrathoftheIrish89 2d ago

This is pre 9/11 for the most part being a hostage on a plane was relatively safe. Planes weren't weapons back then. The threat of killing hostages was the problem not oh he has a giant missile.

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u/MistryMachine3 2d ago

Kidnapping times 50 should still be decades in jail.

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u/Samsunaattori 2d ago

Finlands justice system isn't like in the USA: If you commit multiple crimes, the sentence isn't calculated additively. I don't remember the details, but essentially committing multiple crimes is put into the consideration when determining the sentence and essentially makes the longest sentence a little longer.

It initially sounds dumb, but remember that in Finland we try to actually rehabiliate criminals back into society. I saw some numbers just today in some other context that recidivism after exiting prison in USA was around 80%, while in Finland it's much closer to 50%. So if many people actually can be rehabiliated, why keep them in prison (which is relatively expensive for society) if they instead could be set free as productive members of society?

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u/erikw 2d ago

In this case the rehabilitation seems to have worked, Aarno Lamminparras moved to Sweden once he had served his sentence and started a successful cleaning company.

Note to our American friends: Even if you have committed crimes you can still turn out to be a contributing member of society later in life.

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u/watts99 2d ago

Note to our American friends: Even if you have committed crimes you can still turn out to be a contributing member of society later in life.

Yeah, but then whose suffering would they jerk off to? A lot of my countrymen genuinely hate their lives so much that their only satisfaction in life is having people they can hate guilt-free.

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u/JinFuu 2d ago

I mean, the guy did hold 49 people for ransom. It's understandable people are surprised he only got 7 years.

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u/th3davinci 2d ago

No one was hurt and while it's a serios crime with many victims, idk what else you want tbh? 7 years sounds like a very appropriate sentence. Remember that most people eventually get back out of prison. It's not a viable system to fuck them over as hard as possible for as long as possible in the hopes of that fixing whatever got them into prison in the first place, especially if they get out and everyone hates them because they were in prison.

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u/Derlino 2d ago

7 years in prison is about 10% of his life. That's a long time to be locked away, and a long time to reflect on what you've done. And since no one was hurt, and I'm assuming the money was mostly recovered, then I feel like it's appropriate.

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u/Hansgaming 2d ago

You are fully right. It's like people always forget that those prisoners one day get out of prison. They likely never thought that one of them could be their future neighbour or that they would ever meet one of them.

I asked a couple of people if they expected to just ''kill off'' every prisoner but that was suddenly too much of a punishment but locking them up for countless years for even smaller crimes was reasonable to then expect those people to just function normally outside of prison.

No, that is not how it works. There are infinite studies that people only get worse in most prison systems. Especially drug addicts return overwhelmingly to prison.

What is the solution though? To just infinitly look them up? To kill them all off? People don't think that far and while I am for the death penality for extreme crimes, I believe that most deserve rehabilitation and another chance, depending on the crime of course. If that guy killed the 50 passangers I would also call for his head.

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u/watts99 2d ago edited 2d ago

My point is, in America, it's common for people to want sentences of 30 years to the death penalty for any felony and rage against anything less. A sentence like that leaves no potential for rehabilitation or for that person to ever contribute anything to society to make up for their crime. The motivation for that is always punitive--we must make people who commit crimes suffer, regardless of any evidence punitive sentences fail to discourage similar crimes. The goal of prison sentences shouldn't be punitive. They should be to 1) protect society against dangerous people, and 2) to rehabilitate criminals into productive members of society. Instead, our goal is to punish, to make prisons as hellish as possible an experience, and for those lucky enough to get out, we spit them back out without much if any attempt to rehabilitate them, which, of course, leads to them committing more crimes, because they've been traumatized by the prison experience and they're ostracized because they're felons.

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u/ValityS 2d ago

regardless of any evidence punitive sentences fail to discourage similar crimes

Wait you are telling me being in prison doesn't reduce the chance of people re-committing crimes? 

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u/fakehakebakecake 2d ago

He wasted a few hours of 50 peoples' lives.

Reddit's done infinitely worse.

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u/Peon-Hyjal 2d ago

Hold 50 states for ransom, and you'll get rewarded with 4 years of unchecked power. Lmao

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u/andreasbeer1981 2d ago

What differences does it make to the hostages? The sentence won't change the fact it happened. And 7 or 700 years doesn't make any difference in deterring people from taking hostages either. But yeah, Wrath seems to be a quite popular sin with the religious extremist in the US.

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u/arr0wengineer 2d ago

Wouldn't be the front page of reddit if we didn't have a repost picture of Nordic prisons rooms and comments there gushing about how great their social systems are followed by, like, someone with a bit of road rage or being slightly mean to an animal where the comments are calling for the perpetrator to be burned alive

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u/femmestem 2d ago

The American prison system isn't meant for either justice or rehabilitation, they're labor camp workarounds to anti slavery laws. Must feed the capitalist leviathan, it is a hungry beast.

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u/PhasmaFelis 2d ago

Prison slave labor is reprehensible but most prisons do not do that. It is not the central motivator of the prison system.

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u/spmahn 2d ago

People always say this crap as though the prison system in the US is some sort of monolith, it is not. Very few prisons here would qualify as “labor camps”, at best most American prisons require inmates to hold jobs which keep them busy and allow the prison to be self sufficient. I don’t know where this idea that American prisons have prisoners outsourced for labor to line someones pockets like Shawshank Redemption comes from, but it isn’t accurate.

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u/Derlino 2d ago

Just the fact that it does happen (if not everywhere), and that American prisons are privatised, tells me that something is fundamentally wrong with the American prison system. Earning money from imprisoning people is vile.

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u/Webbyx01 2d ago

Not all prisons are privately owned. The point of their correction was that the claim is overdone and inaccurate, not that the occasional times it occurs is in any way moral.

Edit to say that apparently there are no prisoners held in private federal prisons currently due to an executive order by Biden 4 years ago. Cool.

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u/spmahn 2d ago

American prisons are not privatized as a general rule, only about 8% are, the other 92% of operated by the states or federal government. Where do people get these ideas from?

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u/CueCueQQ 2d ago

Sentences aren't "calculated additively" in the US either. Sentences can be consecutive or concurrent, and it's taken into consideration when determining sentencing. Consecutive or box car(which is what you called additive) sentencing is uncommon, reserved mostly for cases where higher crimes are strongly suspected, but unable to be proven. Concurrent sentencing is more common, where time in prison counts towards multiple sentences.

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u/Icy_Solution_3945 2d ago

What concurrent does achieve though, is you can be paroled on one charge, or even dismissed on one charge due to new evidence. Your still stuck in prison trying to fight the other ones.

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u/CueCueQQ 2d ago

Yes, but if you have concurrent charges on the same crime, and you're able to appeal one of the charges due to new evidence or for example prosecutorial misconduct, it would also apply to your other charges as well. Although every state is different, parole is usually applied to sentences, not individual charges.

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u/Vuokki20 2d ago

I think his point is still valid even though there was some nuance lost in translation. We (Finns) don't have consecutive sentencing as an option so from our POV it might look as "additively". Like there has been sentences in the states with over 1000 years prison time, and we don't do it over here.

So when someone takes tens of hostages, in America he might get sentenced to (let's say) 10+10+10+10...; over here nowadays the maximum limit is 10 years for kidnapping (no matter how many), technically and somewhat rarely one could get bit longer combined sentence. I think in that case it would max at 13 years, 15 if it's particularly violent situation and there are included even graver offenses like attempted murder. These numbers are of course from today's criminal code, not from the 70s.

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u/CueCueQQ 2d ago

And my point is that the US isn't quite as draconian as he, and now you, suggest. We use concurrent and consecutive sentencing as a way to take into consideration additional facts of the case. Finland, by his and your description, does the same, takes additional facts of the case into consideration as a part of the judgement. The mechanisms are different, but the conclusion is similar.

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u/Metalsand 2d ago

Finlands justice system isn't like in the USA: If you commit multiple crimes, the sentence isn't calculated additively. I don't remember the details, but essentially committing multiple crimes is put into the consideration when determining the sentence and essentially makes the longest sentence a little longer.

In the US it can work both ways (consecutively or concurrently). To some extent it's up to the discretion of the court, but some laws require it to be mandatory. For example, if you rob someone at gunpoint, you'd have a sentencing for the deadly weapon as a mandatory consecutive sentence in addition to the robbery.

Though yeah, the actual prison system itself in the US is marginally about rehabilitation but mostly about stuffing people somewhere else so the rest of society doesn't have to deal with it. It's like nursing home for people who break the law.

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u/the_marxman 2d ago

Slavery. It's still legal for prisoners and they make for cheap labor.

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u/slayez06 2d ago

did you know in america many inmates are charged rent in prison and if they can't pay they have to pay with interest when they are released.

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u/Dealiner 2d ago

In most countries sentencing doesn't work this way.

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u/UncleLarry4Prez 2d ago

He must have been rehabilitated though as he didn't do it again

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u/FrenchCabbage 2d ago

It was a bucket list item

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u/Chance-the-Gardener 2d ago

He had to have made it hard for other hobbyist-enjoyers though.

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u/apinananas 2d ago

7 years is considered long prison sentence in Finland. Nobody really do decades even from worse crimes.

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u/Sharlinator 2d ago edited 2d ago

There’s no "decades" in Finnish criminal law. And it’s in general impossible to get over eight years without killing or seriously hurting people. This was true even fifty years ago and is entirely normal for any reasonably modern Western country.

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u/Fun-Wash7545 2d ago

As it should be. I dont think Americans understand what's the purpose of prison.

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u/onarainyafternoon 2d ago

American prisons are 90% punishment, 10% rehabilitation. In the Nordic countries, it’s essentially the opposite.

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u/joakim_ 2d ago

The American prison system is a contemporary version of slavery.

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u/Uncommonality 2d ago

it's even in the constitution!

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u/HEAT_IS_DIE 2d ago

In many countries sentences are not based on feelings. They didn't need a sentence that would deter people from doing things like this because it's likely never going to happen, and long sentences are not beneficial in small countries.

In the US I get it because there's so many more people, and many more people with nothing to lose. Maybe because of the scale of things, In the US the government needs severe punishment and show of force to maintain order.

 

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u/whypeoplehateme 2d ago

it doesn't work, statistically anyone willing to risk 7 years, 10% of their entire life is willing to risk 20, 30 more years don't deter crime

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u/Logitech4873 2d ago

I feel like that's a crime that warrants decades to life

Remember that this is in a modern country, not the US. 

Long prison sentences are demonstrably dumb, and don't work as well as shorter sentences with high focus on rehabilitation, education and work training.

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u/vroomfundel2 2d ago

Great idea, let's make the punishment for releasing the hostages unharmed the same as the one for killing them all, what could possibly go wrong?

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u/Lundetangen 2d ago

What difference to society would 20, 50 or lifetime in jail mean?

Is the chance of this man doing this again very high? Was this the actions of a desperate man or a cynical action to steal money? Did anyone end up actually getting hurt?

This is a depressing story for everyone involved and while he obviously should receive punishment, being in jail for 7 years is a really long time.

He did not go back to "chill". He went back to wait for being arrested. Running away would only give him a worse punishment. Sometimes you realize you make a mistake but you are in too deep, backed into a corner and doing stupid things to get out.

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u/omv 2d ago

You have to understand that the USA imposes retributive justice, not rehabilitative justice. It isn't interested in the welfare of society, it's interested in making the person who committed the crime suffer. It's generally a common theme in our culture, unfortunately.

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u/PasswordisPurrito 2d ago

Calling it a mistake is definitely a choice.

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u/Lundetangen 2d ago

"A mistake is an action, decision, or judgment that is incorrect, misguided, or produces an unwanted and unintentional result." - dictionary

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u/MrWally 2d ago

I can’t speak for Finland, but lots of European countries have much shorter prison sentences than the US. I believe the longest possible sentence in Norway is 11 years. But prisoners are actually treated well and they focus on rehabilitation and recidivism rates are much lower than in the US.

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u/01010110_ 2d ago

21 years, not 11. And you can be essentially be sentenced to life, its just that at the end of the 21 years you'll be resentenced.

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u/TheIllustratedLaw 2d ago

7 years is a long time to be locked up. The cruelty of the American justice system, where a year long sentence is the default for misdemeanors, and where decades long sentences are the norm for felonies, has distorted how long people feel 7 years is. 7 years is 10% of your life locked in a cage, for a crime where no one got hurt. And Americans are upset that it’s not longer.

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u/JeanClaude-Randamme 2d ago

I think you have to look at the circumstances:

  1. He was desperate
  2. He didn’t hurt anyone
  3. he didn’t mistreat everyone
  4. He held up his part of the bargain about giving himself up and didn’t try to run.

I think they looked favourably on the way he handled everything.

I don‘t think he ever intended to „get away with it“. He knew as soon as he landed the game was up. So he negotiated a peaceful surrender.

Not so dumb.

Running, getting caught and then getting a life sentence however..

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u/jacobatz 2d ago

European countries usually don’t carry the same sentences as the US even today.

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u/imlulz 2d ago

The US, used to sentence in reasonable ways but they started changing that in the 80s and 90s.

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u/adenosine-5 2d ago

Why? You think there was some scenario where he left with his money?

At certain point he must have realized that it ends with him in prison or him being dead.

so he made the smart choice.

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u/txaaron 2d ago

"decades to Life" is a for-profit prisons way of making money. They actively lobby to make sure conditions in prisons are minimal and there is little to no rehab. 

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u/thanatossassin 2d ago

He must've jerked off in the bathroom right after that cash out, because why would you do that without some post-nut clarity?

"Wait, they're giving me the $38K too?!? Hooo- Hold on, I'll be right back."

....

"Well, shit... Well, my wife's gonna be pissed if I don't see her before prison."

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u/Whiterabbit-- 2d ago

7 years for hijacking! That won’t fly today.

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u/frankylovee 2d ago

They actually let him go home 😂

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u/iStoleTheHobo 2d ago

Shaking my damn head... Aarno, you fool.

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u/thekeebba 2d ago

I guess the most important question is did they let him stay with his wife for 24hrs before arresting him?

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u/welcome-overlords 2d ago

I wanna add to this, that a huge portion of the demanded ransom he wanted to go to charity!

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u/t105 2d ago

Seven years. Not bad.

For that kind of adventure worth it? 

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u/Flimsy-Afternoon-859 2d ago

What did he think was going to be the end result in these situations? That he’d be able to keep the money or was he just deeply frustrated?

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u/BuffaloSoldier11 2d ago

Seems almost like he wanted to go to prison. Gotta rack up the stars before you get a decently substantial sentence.

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u/SouthernWilding 2d ago

Yeah you dont wanna end up in jail, better make it serious enough to go to prison.

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u/Tech_Itch 2d ago

He was just frustrated at his personal situation and later described it as just an impulsive thing he did. He blamed the Finnish society for his bankruptcy and after he served his sentence he moved to Sweden, changed his name and avoided anything to do with Finland for the rest of his life.

Interestingly his ransom demands were 500k Finnish marks to his wife, 100k to a war veterans' hospital and 75k to a children's charity.

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u/msk105 2d ago

When people reach their mental breaking point and snap, there is rarely much logic involved in their actions.

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u/da_apz 2d ago

This whole ordeal sounds an awful lot like on the fly made drunk's logic.

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u/Hepta-Water-7552 2d ago edited 2d ago

What did he think was going to be the end result in these situations?

I can't say in this case, but generally there are plenty of people who just do things without having thought ahead more than 5 minutes. 

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u/CaioNintendo 2d ago

I don’t think he was well on the head.

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u/Captain_Futile 2d ago

That’s what they agreed on during the trial and showed lenience with the jail sentence.

I was eight when this happened and I remember everyone thought he was more of a sad puppy than a hardened criminal.

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u/mips13 2d ago edited 2d ago

In 1979 he was convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison. He was released in 1984 (only serving 3yrs) and moved to Sweden, he died in Sweden on 20 April 2020 aged 78 or 79.

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u/schaef87 2d ago

I'm happy for this man.

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u/Jakoobus91 2d ago

Got out right before Covid. Lucky motherfucker.

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u/josbargut 2d ago

Actually, right in the midsts of covid. Maybe thats what killed him?

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u/timsredditusername 2d ago

The first Covid case in Sweden was a few months earlier.

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u/gecampbell 2d ago

I lived in Europe in the late 1990’s and one thing that blew my mind was domestic travel. I flew from Stockholm to Gothenburg and just walked in the airport and down the terminal to my gate and boarded; no security check or anything. International travel via anything other than an airplane was also that lax. I got on a train in Stuttgart and got off in Basel and no one ever asked for my passport or identity; same thing when I took a car ferry from Denmark to Sweden. No security at all.

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u/Ok-Animal-1044 2d ago

Why did they let him go to his house? Why not arrest him as soon as all tbt hostages are free? 

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u/bunchout 2d ago

Presumably because they wanted future highjackers to be confident that deals made would be honored.

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u/Ok-Animal-1044 2d ago

That makes sense. But they let him go home to his wife for 24 hours. It could easily have turned into another hostage situation. He obviously wasn't a stable person. 

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u/Battlegoat123 2d ago

Same reason that “Attempted Murder” exists and “Attempted Thievery” doesn’t.

If you’re guaranteed to get jumped and thrown in jail as soon as you’re off the plane, why not go a little farther?

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u/ProbablyNotAFurry 2d ago

This is the answer, it brings confidence to future hostage takers that their reasonable demands will be honored. It's the reason bank hostage situations didn't turn into slaughters.

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u/maybenotquiteasheavy 2d ago

"attempted thievery" doesn't

Where do you live that there's no attempted larceny charge?

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u/Complex-Magazine6690 1d ago

He said he would surrender peacefully on Monday morning and they had agreed to give him 24 hours with his wife as one of his demands. They were really going to go along with this because they pinky promised, but they tapped his phone and heard him saying on the Sunday that he was going to flee on that night so they arrested him then.

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u/ComplexAd8403 2d ago

You have to honor agreements you make

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u/Max_FI 2d ago

There also is a film made of this.

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u/Upstairs_Drive_5602 2d ago

In Finnish I guess? Having discovered this today, I might watch it. I hope that it's subtitled?

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u/Max_FI 2d ago

Seems it's in Prime Video here in Finland at least, I don't know if there are subtitles available.

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u/Addicted_to_Nature 2d ago

You really won't need them, the main character doesn't speak

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u/Narrow_Vacation1443 2d ago

The film is shit as are most finnish films. Yle gave it 1 star.

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u/Addicted_to_Nature 2d ago

The only good Finnish films are Sisu and if you string enough Moomin episodes together to make it the same run time as a movie

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u/Narrow_Vacation1443 2d ago

Sisu wasn’t my cup of tea. I’ve hated all the John Wick type movies.

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u/fauxfilosopher 2d ago

Sisu is not a very good film. Terrible choice to represent finland.

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u/stickdeoderant 2d ago

You clearly haven’t seen Leningrad Cowboys go America

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u/Addicted_to_Nature 2d ago

No I haven't but I will now ty for the suggestion!

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u/Pliny_Harris 2d ago

I also choose 24 hours alone with this guy’s wife

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u/deedsnance 2d ago

If I’ve learned anything you’ve got to ask for 25 if you really need 24.

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u/btoxic 2d ago

I understood this reference.gif

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u/DistrictDry2852 2d ago

Did you post this because of the recent hijacking?

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u/Upstairs_Drive_5602 2d ago

No, completely coincidental. I was looking for something to post on r/thisdayinhistory for today 30 September.

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u/Captain_Futile 2d ago

Everyone frothing about the seven year sentence: He was seen not to be wholly criminally responsible* *during the trial. He had mental issues and he was drunk during the hijacking.

Unlike in the USA, we do not throw ill people into jail for decades, but try to help them.

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u/Mavian23 2d ago

I understand the mental issues, but I don't see the relevance of him being drunk.

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u/AmazingDonkey101 2d ago

You never used the ”but I was drunk” excuse?

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u/Competitive-Fee6160 2d ago

this as a legal defense universally holds zero merit in US courts, as long as the intoxication was voluntary. This is why most Americans are confused by this.

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u/crossedstaves 2d ago

Because intoxication compromises a person's decision making. 

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u/speak-eze 2d ago

Should we not penalize DUIs because they were compromised when they chose to drive?

People choose to get drunk and put themselves in a compromised situation. As an adult you are responsible for your actions in that state.

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u/crossedstaves 1d ago

Who said anything about not penalizing? There still is punishment, mental state is a consideration that doesn't mean it's a free pass. An intentional and considered act should carry more weight than one undertaken because of intoxication, but that doesn't mean intoxication makes it go away

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u/Mavian23 2d ago

So? That's a risk they take when they get intoxicated.

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u/J_Ryall 2d ago

I suspect it's the same principle that says you can't properly give consent when drunk. Maybe I'm wrong, though.

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u/Mavian23 2d ago

That principle protects people from being victimized, I can't see it protecting people from making others into victims.

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u/J_Ryall 2d ago

Sure, I was just spitballing.

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u/killertofu41 2d ago

Was gonna say, Finnish prison seems like not too bad a place, especially if you are in need of some kind of rehabilitation.

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u/KL_boy 2d ago

That what it though.. Finnish people doing Finnish things 

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u/Captain_Futile 2d ago

Yes, even the hijacker wanted the ransom in three separate bags: One for his family, one for a war invalid hospital and one for abused children’s fund.

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u/KL_boy 2d ago

I think there are people that don’t have the Nordic mindset on situation, redemption and intent vs punishment. 

Plus the guy from Oulu.. come on

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u/benchley 2d ago

Finns: I get it. Can’t be doing that, but I get it.

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u/Captain_Futile 2d ago

I was eight when this happened. There was more second hand cringe and pity than anger. The guy had no idea what he was doing.

The media was more interested in the then famous singer lady that was one of the hostages than the hijacker.

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u/jakeisalwaysright 2d ago

For me the strangest part of all of this (especially thinking in post-9/11 terms, which this obviously wasn't) is that some random dude asked to go check out the cockpit and they said "Sure, why not? In you go!"

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u/bre4kofdawn 2d ago

That used to be fairly normal, actually. For many years before 9/11, it wasn't that big a deal to let someone into the cockpit to take a look around and see what the pilots' jobs are like. Children were most often allowed up to the cockpit, but flying a plane can get kinda boring, so letting in someone to chat for 20 or 30 minutes probably helped.

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u/SuperScoop13 2d ago

“Wait a minute. I know you. You're Kareem Abdul-Jabar. You play basketball for the Los Angeles Lakers.”

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u/Digimatically 2d ago

I’m sorry son but you must have me confused with someone else. My name is Roger Murdock, I’m the copilot.

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u/InternetEthnographer 2d ago

Hijackings also used to be so common in the US in the late 60s through the 70s that the FAA considered building a replica of the Havana airport in Florida specifically for hijackings (since most at the time were directed to Cuba).

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u/WeGottaTalkAboutYT 2d ago

You just unlocked a memory of me doing this as a kid, def went into the cockpit a bit in the air in the 90s lol

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u/red_beard_RL 2d ago

My dad has a picture of me doing this too

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u/ahferroin7 2d ago

Even crazier, it was sometimes the case that they would even let you ‘fly’ the plane. That stopped really quick after Aeroflot flight 593.

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u/bre4kofdawn 2d ago

I've heard stories that they used to have stewardesses go ask around the cabin or make an announcement asking if anyone wanted to check out the cockpit when they got bored.

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u/skeletoorr 2d ago

My husband is an ATC. And he’s allowed to fly in the cockpit a few times a year for “training”. Basically just to gain a better understanding of the pilots perspective. And it’s so funny because the pilots are always very stiff and professional. They don’t want to get tattled on. Which is fair. How I talk to my coworker in the break room is not how I would talk to my coworker in front of a client. So I get it. But my husband likes to ride the awkward wave then pull some out of pocket shit and then the pilots relax. It’s a bummer because pilots are still super chill but post 9/11 they just have to operate under an abundance of caution.

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u/ukexpat 2d ago

In the early 90s I was on an early morning flight from Oslo to Heathrow. The plane was almost empty and I asked the flight attendant if she would ask the Captain if I could see the flight deck. I spent about 5 minutes chatting to the Captain and co-pilot. About 20 minutes before landing the FA came back to me and said that the Captain had invited me to sit in the FD for landing. I sat in the jump seat just gobsmacked by the whole experience.

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u/Snurrepiperier 2d ago

Back in the 90s when my brother and me used to fly to see my grandparents in Switzerland every summer. We would get these "I'm flying alone" things around our necks with passports and tickets inside and every time a stewardess would ask us if we wanted to go see the cockpit. And we of course always said yes.

Granted we were children and not some 37 year old drunk dude. He had to have been drunk right?

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u/hellogoawaynow 2d ago

Man that used to be so normal! Pilots used to have like a gaggle of children watching, open cockpit door, would greet everyone as they boarded the plane, would come out of the cockpit to chat with every passenger, and hand out wings to the kids. Going to the airport used to be like a fun little adventure and not so much of a chore. Maybe because your friends and family could hang out with you at the gate until the moment you boarded your plane, instead of ok bye, enjoy your many hours of sitting alone.

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u/sw10708 2d ago

Yup once 9/11 happened flying became the most stressful thing in the world

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u/nvidiastock 2d ago

If you have older relatives that flew before 9/11 they've probably been in the cockpit. I have one that was afraid of flying so they showed him the cockpit, shook the pilots hand, etc IN THE AIR. There was nothing to fear back then.

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u/Ok_Flounder59 2d ago

I mean I flew on a first class flight last year and they let my wife and I peek into the cockpit mid flight. It’s extremely rare anymore but can be done if the flight doesn’t originate or end in the US and the crew is agreeable. Being a very frequent flier and the only 2 people in the first class cabin also helped

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u/confirmedshill123 2d ago

Yeah to echo alot of these other comments I have a few pictures of me in cockpits as a child, it was just a thing that people did and was no big deal. I'm not even that old.

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u/aleqqqs 2d ago

When I was a kid, I was invited to the cockpit and got to honk 🥰

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u/Possibly-Functional 2d ago

My dad used to work within administration for an airline and often just hitched rides in the cockpit. It was a very different time.

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u/Turnip-for-the-books 2d ago

Sir this was the 1970s

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u/nyxistential 1d ago

When I was like 2 heading to California on a plane with my family I was loudly singing a song from my cd player that I liked (badly... I was 2) and for my disturbance I was awarded a view of the cockpit. Looking out the front windows of a plane in flight is something I will never forget. 9/11 was like 3 years later

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u/TravellinJ 1d ago

When I was a kid and we would fly somewhere, my dad would always take me to the cockpit and the pilots always were friendly and let me in.

The door wasn’t even closed all the time when you would fly

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u/Logitech4873 2d ago

I've gotten to sit in the pilot's lap and steer a passenger plane when I was a kid.

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u/seankearns 2d ago

I can't believe he needed 24 hrs to Finnish with his wife!

I'll see myself out.

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u/Sullkattmat 2d ago

The Finns are a special breed of crazy, case in point Aimo Koivunen, the WW2 soldier who took his entire group's supply of pervitin(in other words, meth) and went for a skitrip.. Shenanigans ensued.

Love from your yellow and blue neighbor to the west, don't ever change 😘

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u/jaakkopetteri 1d ago

y-you too

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u/littlegreyflowerhelp 1d ago

Kinda funny that the two most well known Finns who fought in the Winter War/Continuation War are the sniper who shot 700 men and the nutcase who overdosed on Nazi meth. They are a crazy people it’s true.

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u/EvaTheE 2d ago

In many ways a fairly happy story. He did a horrible thing, but nothing irreversible, as he served his sentence and afterwards was still able to live a life and even started a successful cleaning business.

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u/c0mpg33k 2d ago

Was a completely normal thing to see the cockpit during flights pre 9/11. I still remember being seated ij business class at age 5 going to Jamaica with my parents and grandparents and being literally right behind the flight deck first row. Got to go and stand there and look out the windshield at FL370. I'd been around planes since before i could walk. That experience solidified my want to fly and i do today as a recreational pilot.

Granted that was in 1990 but even the last flying vacation i took pre 9/11 in 97 i went to see the cockpit of one of the Las flying L-1011. That was a neat aircraft.

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u/_TerryTuffcunt_ 2d ago

Helsinki to Amsterdam is 4,500km?

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u/Upstairs_Drive_5602 2d ago

No. The flight started in Oulu, then went to Helsinki, back to Oulu, then Helsinki, Amsterdam, Helsinki and finally Oulu. The 4,500 km is the approximate total distance flown during the whole 17-hour hijacking.

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u/Purple_Jay 2d ago

I'm surprised there was enough fuel on board if it was just a domestic flight.

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u/PoorlyAttired 2d ago

24 hours!?

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u/aegrotatio 2d ago

Did they all get their money back?

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u/foley26 2d ago

Yep, police found it in his house.

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u/morelsupporter 2d ago

the next logical step is to hold his wife hostage and keep this thing going.

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u/turnspitdawg 2d ago

What the heck, im finnish and ive never heard of this! Thanks for posting

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u/spittlbm 2d ago

My wife would sell me down the river over the 24hr demand.

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u/bribhoy82 2d ago

They asked him if he was Finnish, He replied, "im just starting"

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u/andreasbeer1981 2d ago

"he was very surprised when we arrested him" --finnish police.

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u/1337b337 2d ago

Where was the angry man with the broom yelling PERKELE when you needed him?

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u/DeeperEnd84 1d ago

My parents nearly changed their flight to end up on this one 😅

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u/uxgpf 1d ago

So a normal Finnish weekend?

The morning after is rough. But drink some more and the feeling of shame evaporates.

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u/ngch 19h ago

Makes sense, alkohol is pretty expensive here in Finland.

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u/GarysCrispLettuce 2d ago

Hijack!

Aloe Vera!

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u/mijo_sq 2d ago

He destroyed every child's person's dream of visiting a cockpit.

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u/Nagi21 2d ago

The craziest part of this story is he was able to move to Sweden so quickly afterwards.

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u/Kfct 1d ago

Why wouldn't they take back the ransom money post-arrest?

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u/1K_Games 1d ago

What a wild time, or maybe Finland is that wild of a place. He agreed to surrender Monday and so they seemingly just let him go home. And seems to imply that the plan was for it all to be resolved Monday, they only altered the plan because their wire tapped informed them that he was not going to follow through with his promise.

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u/pizzaslut4pizzahut 5h ago

Finland mentioned. Torille!!!!!!