Hijacker frees hostages, kills himself

Los Angeles Times

ATLANTA A shotgun-wielding bank robbery suspect, Thomas Michael Hannan, 29, shot and killed himself last night while negotiating with his lawyer aboard a Frontier Airlines Boeing 737 jet, he had hijacked here from Grand Island, Neb.:

Atlanta police reported that Hannan had died at about 10 p.m. EDT, less than an hour after he had released all 13 passengers remaining on the aircraft as hostages at Hartsfield International Airport.

Several minutes earlier, James Dunn, speciał agent in charge of Atlanta's FBI office, had told reporters that the passengers were "all off the aircraft and all safe." He then added that Hannan was "still negotiating" with his lawyer, in the company of the remaining crew members pilot and the copilot.

"We are optimistic," Dunn said.

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About 10 minutes later, an ambulance sped toward the aircraft and police confirmed that Hannan had killed himself.

Earlier in the evening, Hannan had agreed to surrender after his homosexual lover, George David Stewart, 29, told him over a two-way radio' hookup that to do otherwise would be to "throw away" his life. Stewart and Hannan had been accused of bank robbery; Stewart had been held in the Fulton County jail here.

"Go ahead and surrender," Stewart said. "There's nothing else to do. It's just going to be a bloody thing.".

Hannan, who had been free on bail, had hijacked the Frontier Airlines plane yesterday morning in Grand Island, Neb., his home town. He ordered it flown to Kansas City where he released all of the women passengers and a man with a heart condition, then ordered the plane flown on to Atlanta, where it arrived just after noon. He demanded $3 million, 2 machine guns, two parachutes and the release from jail of Stewart.

Stewart told Hannan that there was nowhere the two of them could go to start a new life.