In Hijack, Alice Sinclair is the first person at London ATC to notice that something is wrong with flight KA29 and bring it to the attention of the authorities. Eve Myles plays the role of Alice Sinclair.
Alice Sinclair is an air traffic controller at London Heathrow Airport. She is usually late to work because she has to take her son to school before coming to work. The day the Kingdom Airlines flight from Dubai to London gets hijacked is not any different.
As soon as Alice starts working, she is informed about the security incident on the flight. Everyone believes that it was a false alarm because the pilot had said it himself, but not Alice.
A keen eye
When Alice is told that a passenger on board sent a message that led to counterterrorism calling London ATC about the security incident on KA29, she immediately suspects that something is wrong.
She is the only one to notice that there were two alerts — one from the pilot and one from a passenger. The fact that the passenger did not send another message to confirm the pilot’s claim about it being a false alarm strikes her as odd.
On top of that, the plane’s wifi is off, which means that London ATC cannot contact it. Alice is a sharp woman, so she is able to see what no one else does, which leads her to the conclusion that something is not right. She convinces her coworkers as well and then asks them to contact Baghdad ATC.
Baghdad ATC shares their screen with London ATC, and once again, it is Alice who notices that the plane has veered off its course. Before 9/11, planes often did that, but not anymore because it is closely monitored.
This is now considered a nonverbal signal to indicate that there is a problem onboard. Alice contacts Zahra from counterterrorism and informs her about the same.
Alice also asks Istanbul ATC to point this error out to the pilot and ask him to correct the plane’s course when the plane enters Turkey’s airspace. Istanbul ATC brings it to the pilot’s attention and asks him to correct it.
The pilot deliberately makes an overcorrection, which confirms that he is trying to tell the authorities about the threat onboard. Thanks to Alice, the authorities find out about the hijacking sooner than the hijackers had intended.
Although Alice’s job is to see that the planes land in order, when KA29 gets hijacked, she does much more than that; she starts communicating with counterterrorism as well as the ATCs of other countries on behalf of London ATC.
Also Read: Sam Nelson: Hijack character explained
