Kenyan Flight Hero Tells How He Saved Day

N A I R O B I, Kenya, Dec. 30 -- Clarke Bynum awoke on a British Airwaysjumbo jet headed to Nairobi to the howl of engines and screams forhelp as the airliner took a nosedive.

Despite being sure he was about to die, he leaped from hisbusiness class seat and rushed into the cockpit to find a tallKenyan man trying to crash the plane and the pilots trying in vainto stop him. Bynum, a former Clemson University basketball player,used his 6-foot-7-inch frame to grab the Kenyan and wrestle him tothe floor.

“There were literally hundreds of people back home praying forus, knowing we were going on this [church] mission trip [toUganda]. There was this strength within that made me get up and go.It came from God,” the 39-year-old South Carolina resident toldThe Associated Press on Saturday from his hotel in Nairobi.

There were also hundreds of people praying Friday on Flight 2069from London to Nairobi — 379 passengers and 19 crew to be precise.

“As we awoke, the plane within seconds was in a violent drop,”said Bynum, who was traveling with his friend Gifford Shaw. “Ilooked at Giff and said, ‘We’re gonna die.’ He said, ‘You’reright.’

A 27-year-old Kenyan man, whom police and airline officials havedescribed as deranged, had rushed into the cockpit, grabbed thecontrols and was pushing the Boeing 747-400 into a series ofnosedives as he struggled with First Officer Phil Watson forcontrol of the plane.

“We could hear hollering and banging [in the cockpit],” Bynumsaid. “I said to Giff, ‘We have to do something.’ I looked out thewindow and could see we were going straight down. So I went to thecockpit.”

Chaos as Plane Plunged

Bynum — who was on the flight only because weather in Londoncaused him to miss a connection to Entebbe, Uganda — said his mindwas whirling with what he might find: A hijacker with a gun or aknife. Or maybe there was more than one attacker?