Tropic Air Flight 711

On 17 April 2025, a Tropic Air Cessna 208 Caravan, operating as Tropic Air Flight 711 was hijacked by a passenger armed with a knife while flying between the Belizean towns of Corozal and San Pedro. The hijacker was shot and killed by an armed passenger after the plane performed an emergency landing at Philip S. W. Goldson International Airport.

Hijacking

The flight was operating as Flight 9N711. At 08:17 CST (UTC−6), the aircraft took off from Corozal Airport headed to John Greif II Airport. Six minutes later, the aircraft began squawking 7700, indicating a general emergency.

The plane made a sharp turn and began to circle over the Belizean coast. While over the Caribbean Sea, the aircraft requested that other aircraft in the area, including a helicopter of Astrum Helicopter Tours, keep track of it.

The aircraft flew over Belize City until it nearly ran out of fuel and landed, at which point the hijacker began stabbing passengers with a knife. Two were injured while others ran to the back of the plane. The plane then landed at Philip S. W. Goldson International Airport in Belize City at around 10:30 am. Upon landing, another passenger with a license to carry a firearm shot the hijacker dead. Both injured victims were taken to a hospital and later recovered. A 49-year-old United States national and military veteran Akinyela Sawa Taylor was identified as the hijacker. Taylor had entered Belize some days before the hijacking, and during this time, he was reported to have attacked a police officer. The hijacking lasted for about an hour and a half. His motive was unknown but he demanded that the pilot take him out of the country. Belize's police commissioner Chester Williams said that Taylor had previously been denied entry to Belize.

The hijacker demanded the crew to fly the plane to Texas, a destination which was not possible to reach given the amount of fuel in the aircraft tanks.