Paul was caught up in the 1st hijack in Australia on 15.11.1972. An Ansett flight from Adelaide was approaching the airport with 28 passengers and 4 crew when a man with a gun told a hostess, "This is a hijack." She did not take him seriously so he escorted both hostesses to the cockpit where he spoke to the pilot, demanding a parachute, jump suit and to be flown 1000 miles out into the desert. When the plane landed, most passengers were allowed to leave. Six remained onboard and the hijacker detained the crew. Andy McNeil, a police officer recalled " We established contact with the pilot through the tower and the hijacker had instructed them to keep moving. It was pretty obvious he was deranged. He instructed 'no police in the area' so anyone in uniform was out of sight. Paul Sandeman had shorts and long socks on, so we thought he was good enough for a civilian. I asked him how he felt about it and he said he'd give it a go and I said don't do anything silly and he said 'I'm too nervous to do anything silly.' I gave him my pistol, an undercover bodyguard model. He went out to the aircraft and they taxied out to the Fokker. One of the hostesses got off; the hijacker had a gun at her back. They walked over to Paul and the hijacker got her to search him and he had my pistol in his back pocket. She was a very brave lady, as she didn't say anything about it. They talked for a while, then the hijacker said 'we're getting on the aircraft and we're going' and Paul thought he better make a move because he didn't want them to get off the ground."
Paul Sandeman lunged at the hijacker to disarm him. He was wounded in the hand and stomach, losing his grip on the hijacker. During the struggle, his pistol fell to the tarmac and was kicked out of reach. As he tried to get away, the hijacker continued to fire at his back, hitting him in the right shoulder and upper left arm. With Paul out of the firing line, other police opened fire on the hijacker, who ran to some bushes at the edge of the tarmac. The pilot was able to leave the Cessna to help Paul, who was taken to Alice Springs Hospital for surgery. The hijacker died at 7.28pm that evening.
The Prime Minister's office announced "His Excellency the Governor-General has approved the award of a Queen's Commendation for Brave Conduct to Constable Paul Glas Sandeman of the Northern Territory Police Force." Readers Digest in April 1974 included, "Showdown at Alice Springs."
Andy McNeill commented, "For a mob of fellows who were untrained in this sort of action, they successfully aborted a hijacking. The only one killed was the hijacker. The fact is that that fellow could have killed everybody on that aircraft or he could have taken off in the light aircraft and killed 4 people. By whatever means we did it, we aborted it. That cost dearly with Paul Sandeman, although he wasn't killed. He recovered from his injuries but was out of the job within 2 years because he never fully recovered. We had read about hijacks but didn't know anything about them, but then again nowhere else in Australia had had one either. As a result of it all the standing orders and strategic planning for hijacks came out and now exercises happen throughout Australia."
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