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were attempting to obtain a North Korean missile system called 'RODON 1'. This is a highly effective system which is of great interest to the USA. The terrorists have become concerned that their original plan which was to ship the cargo via Vladivostock to Iraq might be disrupted by US interdiction on the high seas. They decide to seize the 'Sealand Developer' and force the captain to take her into HK to off-load the illicit cargo of 'machine parts' which they plan to transfer it to the waiting 747 and fly it to Iraq.
Threats and demands are made both of the authorities at Kai Tak airport and at Hong Kong harbour. Some hostages are killed.
The exercise was structured in such a way that the well rehearsed terrorist group had a great deal of 'free play' and could 'decide' the end game without much direction from exercise control. In all there were more than nine possible combinations of ending to the exercise.
Exercise Structure and Preparation
The exercise was very well planned. It involved the RHKP in a mammoth response and tested almost all aspects of the organisation. Every eventuality had been considered by the planning team which had made strenuous and largely successful efforts to keep the scenarios secret. Documentation was well prepared and circulation carefully controlled.
Role players had been extensively briefed and given imaginative and challenging roles. They behaved impeccably and contrived to produce an atmosphere of reality which certainly stretched many of the participants.
The exercise depended -as so many do - on the co-operation of private organisations like Hong Kong Air, Sealand and others. This imposed some artificial constraints on the exercise controllers - like the airline seeking the return of their aircraft earlier than agreed - which were in the main unforeseeable. The exercise was ambitious, and despite the odd hiccup, worked very well. That says much about the regard with which the RHKP is held locally.
The Airport
The response at the airport was swift and effective. Senior management at the airport were efficient and effective. In particular the local commander impressed as a highly proficient and effective officer with the ability to get things done.
At the outset as the incident unfolded, it became clear that the Air Traffic Controller had a pivotal role whilst the aircraft was on its final approach to Hong Kong. Not only was she performing her routine assigned duty of controlling the aircraft but she was also in effect 'negotiating' with the hijacked pilot. She remained unsupported for far too long. She obviously knew it was an exercise: she had to for safety's sake. Even so, at one stage she put down her hand phones and said, "I don't know what to say to them!" At the end of the spell she had a headache.