3 Degrees – The episode opens with Stuart Atterton (Neil Maskell) and Sam Nelson (Idris Elba) coming to blows outside the cockpit. Stuart orders Jamie Constantinou (Aimee Kelly) to go retrieve Sam’s passport. Despite Sam’s earlier pleas, Eddie (Grant Burgin) and Gary (Paul Hickey) are working on making weapons from accessible items. Jamie escorts Sam to his seat to force him to unlock his phone. She scans his and Marsha Nelson-Smith’s (Christine Adams) texts when she spots Jaden (Mohamed Elsandel) being subdued by Paul and Eddie. During the attack, Jaden’s gun goes off. A short time later, the hijackers regain control of the situation. Retrieving Jaden’s gun, Sam hands it over to Stuart before reminding him of his previous offer.
Elsewhere, DI Daniel O’Farrel (Max Beesley)calls Zahra Gahfoor (Archie Panjabi) to inform her of Sam’s hijacking. She assures him that the hijacking isn’t a counterterrorism issue but agrees to look into it.
Being led back to his seat by Kelvin (Jack Parry-Jones), Sam gets the cold shoulder from Hugo (Harry Michell). Terry (Jasper Britton) orders Deevia (Zora Bishop) to warn the other passengers to not intervene in the hijacking. Sam writes Stuart a warning on a page from a magazine that Pilot Robin Allen (Ben Miles) will be a problem.
Zahra contacts Simon (James Barriscale) at the airport for information on Sam’s flight. For some unknown reason, the plane’s Wi-Fi has been disabled. A supervisor at the Dubai Tower informs them of Robin calling in an incident, only to cancel it a short time later. Zahra agrees with Abdullah (Mohamed Faisal Mostafa)’s false alarm theory.
Sam explains his concern for Robin to Stuart. He tells him that a plane flies in autopilot mode during the departure and landing. He suggests removing him from the helm. Stuart orders Robin to put the plane on autopilot. Pointing at the monitor, Robin validates the plan is being controlled by autopilot. Stuart believes Robin’s position is futile for the time being.
Dubai Airport –Abdullah visits Dubai’s airport security checkpoint. The security guard (Adnan Rashed) who attempted to prevent Alec (Justin Salinger) from joining the Dubai flight is on duty. Neela Kumar (Nikkita Chadha) ordered him to permit Alec access. He suggests checking the CCTV.
Cabin – Per Stuart’s orders, Kelvin moves Robin to first class. Sam gives Stuart an approving nod. Pretending to play a video game, a female passenger shares information about the hijacking via the “chat with friends” feature. Terry intervenes by demanding no more interactions between passengers. Sam sends Robin a chat request. Robin looks up to make contact with him before accepting the chat request.
Dubai Airport – Abdullah and the security guard review the CCTV footage to discover the emergency call Neela received before leaving work. Abdullah later finds out that she complained of being sick to leave her shift early. He questions the validity of her illness.
Cabin – Robin informs Sam that the control tower is unaware of the hijacking. Iraqi ATC will contact the pilot at some point but with the cockpit abandoned, it will result in military involvement. The plane is nearing Iraq’s airspace. A few minutes later, Kelvin, guarding the cockpit, is alerted by hails from Baghdad’s control tower. Sam stresses to Stuart the importance of Robin acknowledging the alert. Kelvin orders Sam to return to his seat when Stuart orders First Officer Anna Kovacs (Kaisa Hammarlund) to do it. Anna makes the mistake of identifying herself as the pilot. The controller checks the log to see if the pilot is male. She tries to rectify her mistake by claiming the pilot stepped away for a moment. The controller questions why Anna would make such claims. Sam urges Robin to get to the cockpit. Robin warns it could intensify the problem.
After dealing with a hysterical Colette (Kate Philips), Sam watches as Robin heads to the cockpit to validate his identity to the tower controller. The airplane is permitted access to Iraq’s airspace. As Robin is being led back to first class, he makes a slight adjustment to one of the controls.
British Air Tower – Simon reprimands British air traffic controller, Alice Sinclair (Eve Myles) for arriving late. An associate hurriedly fills her in on the emergency call that was nothing more than a false alarm. Alice believes something is going on inside the airplane. Listening to her theory, Simon begins to question the seriousness of the emergency call. She says the disabled Wi-Fi is proof. On his way home, Abdulla reaches out to Neela and her contacts to no avail. A Bagdad ATC(Nowras Tharb) tells Simon that it took Robin some time to respond to their hails. Alice requests access to the Bagdad flight screen. The British air controller team realizes the Kingdom 2-9 isn’t on the original flight path. Only a 3-degree shift is still problematic.
Cabin – Sam and Robin chat via the game. The plane veering off its flight plane is revealed.
Abdullah visits Neela’s apartment to find the door ajar and Joe (Chris Corrigan) and Maz (Samson Cox-Vinell) cleaning. Joe turns on the vacuum while Max shoots Abdulla.
Hijack Review
While a lot is going on, not much is being accomplished. No one can seemingly agree something unusual is happening with Flight KA29. If this were a real hijacking, it would be a travesty for the passengers and their families.
The screenplay needs serious improvement. Ignore the show’s downfalls to get the most out of what it has to offer. The episode deserves a 5.5. Get more Hijack recaps here. Support Reel Mockery by clicking the link. Our onsite advertising builds online awareness, learn more by speaking with our customer support.
I was really confused about Sam’s plan for 95% of the episode until realizing that the whole objective was to tell Robin to deviate the heading 1 or 2 degrees. But I wonder if Robin wouldn’t have done that anyway given what the expert at Heathrow said about 9-11. And I guess having Robin there will be beneficial down the road since Sam can IM him with more instructions.
It was really good to see Eve Myles again. I just loved her in Keeping Faith. She’s a Welsh actress doing the London accent. Very convincing.
It’s somewhat of a corn ball show but I have to say it’s really entertaining and so far I’m liking it.
Yep it really isn’t bad at all despite some hate for the show on the rating sites. I think those scores sometimes depend on kickbacks because they rarely make sense. Too bad it is a weekly release now.