Sky Bus 365 terrorist incident

Sky Bus 365 terrorist incidentPart of the British Royal Family Arc
Sky Bus 365 at an airport in Paris, France before the incident.
Information
Location	School District 23, Academy City Paris, France Edinburgh, Scotland
Side	Magic
Date Started	October 17
Fatalities	None
Survivors	All 500+ passengers and crew, including the terrorists on-board
Perpetrators	Musset Eiker Lugoni

The Sky Bus 365 terrorist incident is an attempted terrorist hijacking that took place on October 17 of the story's first year as a result of the degradation of relationships between the United Kingdom and France.

Background

Eurotunnel bombing

Main article: Eurotunnel bombing

With the bombing of the Eurotunnel 5 days prior, which at that point was referred to by some of the media as "an accidental explosion", England was suffering from the shortage of goods and growing economic trouble, forcing the country to increase the use of sea and air transportation to move goods until the tunnel is repaired.

Due to this, Sky Bus 365 would later participate in aiding in the transport of goods from France to Britain, and apparently was planned in advance.

Goal of the terrorists

Believing that the Eurotunnel was purposefully done by England and that only France was damaged by it, a French anti-England group planned to do the same type of damage to England in retaliation. The group's aim was to completely take out England's air routes. To do this, the terrorists wanted the destruction of the master recorders (マスターレコード, Masutā Rekōdo^?) for the 4 major airlines in the United Kingdom. They are computers that provide centralized management for passengers' flight tickets and luggage tags. It is vital to the operations in airlines as dealing with that much information is too much to deal with by hand. If tampered with while connected to the network, its data will be completely destroyed. Essentially crippling the United Kingdom's airline industry.

In the e-mail they would later send to the airlines, they demand for the United Kingdom to close off the air routes, and then destroy the master recorders, as a way to deal an equal amount of damage to the country.

Planning of the attack

Eiker Lugoni and Musset is part of this anti-England group. The terrorists then strike a deal with several organizations for information and shelter in exchange for teaching them how to hijack a plane without using any weapons. With this, the group is able to make use of the information given to them about Sky Bus 365 stopping at France to be used to transport goods, and chooses it as its target. Knowing of the structural defect in the Sky Bus 365's model, the terrorists take flights on planes with the same model as "practice runs". These planes are Flight 5991 from Paris to Moscow, Flight 4135 from Neath to New York, and Flight 7558 from Marseille to Beijing, cutting their engines for 15 seconds during mid-flight during their tests. With this information, one of them then sends an e-mail threatening the airliner and specifically mentions the structural defect of Sky Bus 365's model likely to add weight to their threat.

Eiker meanwhile, has Musset apparently board the plane at Academy City in the business class section. He would also book a seat next to a square portion of the plane that can be removed with ease under a false name. This square portion is where they can take advantage of the structural defect in the Sky Bus 365, and use it to make it crash. Eiker gives Musset a notepad containing information to the plan, and instructs him not to look on it if he didn't have to, only rechecking it if it is important. Musset also had with him a cell phone with a program that if he is able to connect to Sky Bus 365's system, then he will be able to infect it and cripple its emergency landing stabilizer. From then on, he would likely force the plane to do an emergency "belly landing". He also arms himself a knife made from animal bone, allowing it to go by metal detectors undetected. Later, after the plane lands in Paris to transport the goods, Eiker will smuggle himself into the plane's cargo hold. He would bring with him a collection of explosives, intending to bring down the plane if their primary failed.

Basically, the plan was to manipulate the emergency landing stabilizers and threaten to crash the plane if the United Kingdom doesn't destroy its master recorders for the airlines, if that fails then they will be forced to make use of the second plan, where the plane would be threatened in being blown up instead.

Chronology

October 17 flight

On October 17 of the story's first year, the airliner was scheduled to fly from School District 23 in Academy City to Scotland, Edinburgh. Touma and Index, who were heading to London on the airliner, would be then forced to take another flight from Edinburgh just to get to London. Because Eiker Lugoni booked the other seat away from his accomplice with a fake name and since the "passenger" didn't show up by the time of the boarding deadline, Touma is able to buy the ticket for the seat at the last minute. This allows Touma to occupy the aforementioned seat.

The e-mail threat would later be sent to the air traffic control in Academy City, and from there sends word to the airliner. The sender of the e-mail would later be apprehended by French authorities for interrogation, though he or she wasn't willing to divulge information that would be usable to nip the terrorist plot in time.

The plane was manned by a captain, with two co-pilots, Wash and Richmond. There is also a unnamed female flight attendant that Touma describes as having a nice body. The pilot has a weapon called an Archery.

Prelude

As anticipated, Sky Bus 365 lands at a French airport in Paris, for the transport of goods from France to Britain after the Eurotunnel bombing. Here, Eiker Lugoni, disguising himself as a worker for the airport in Paris, sneaks into the cargo hold, in the center section where the goods are kept.

After Sky Bus 365 is in the air, Musset makes his move. He has been watching Touma as he is in the seat that was supposed to be empty. After rechecking his notes, he concludes that Touma was able to purchase a ticket for the seat after the "passenger" that Eiker booked was cancelled after the boarding deadline. To deflect suspicion from him, he goes to the second story of the aircraft and doubles back down to his story. He walks pass by Touma, secretly observing him.

The pilot, knowing full well of the danger that the airliner faced, had the flight attendant print out the report from air traffic control, containing not only flight numbers but the e-mail threat by the terrorists. She would later bump into Touma, who was wondering about their in-flight meal. Though the attendant questioned Touma if he saw what was written on them, when she learns that Touma didn't understand after he says he didn't look up her skirt after she fell, she later leaves and promises to bring their meal. The pilot later communicates with a security officer from Academy City regarding the terror threat, with the latter concluding that the terrorists will move in the time between the airliners flight from Paris to Edinburgh, which was 40 minutes to an hour, and that they are prepared to commit suicide as well. The pilot suggests turning back to Paris, but the security officer states that he will be noticed and that he can't make a gradual enough turn as there isn't enough spare fuel. The pilot discovers that he and the crew is alone in finding the terrorist before they make their move and all the while have to keep it a secret from the passengers lest chaos and panic erupts.

The incident

First actions

Just after the pilot's conversation with the person from Academy City, he is alerted that by one of his crew members that the terrorist have made their move, injuring a female crew member from behind. Musset later retreats to the area where the emergency hatch was after stealing the flight attendant's card key.

Before the flight attendant with the nice body can wipe the blood from the food storage room near the free drink dispenser, Touma discovers it. The flight attendant, after seeing this, subdues Touma, and reports to the captain of what happened and for further instructions. She later explains to Touma the situation they were in, and says he had been subdued in order to prevent panic as well as prevent provoking the prevent the terrorist from attacking.

The pilot later arrives and says that Touma should be separated from the other passengers. The flight attendant protests, saying that though they have to ensure the safety of the passengers, there is really no need for them to confine Touma. Despite this, the pilot has little faith on Touma and overrules her. The pilot says that he should be confined until the situation is resolved, and as thanks for his cooperation will be refunded. Touma asks if they can handle it on their own and offers his services. The pilot says that they are also confining him to prevent him from interfering, as he cannot let an amateur like him handle the situation where 500 and more passengers' lives are in stake. With that the captain says that it is his responsibility to take care of the passengers and he has no reason to take on the responsibility. Touma is later put in the in-flight meal heating area, though is unable to do anything but wait for the door to be opened.

Second actions

Despite having the card, Musset could not get the hatch to open in order to get Eiker out for their backup plan. He later rechecks Touma's seat and finds out he isn't there, and Index was also wandering about in the aisle. Seeing his chance, he leaves to once again go to the stairs to get to the other floor and come back down and approach the seat from the other direction.

Despite his precautions, Index still notices and approaches him, telling the Musset that he is sitting on Touma's seat. Irritated by the setbacks, Musset pulls out his animal bone knife and threatens Index discreetly as he continues on with his operation. He opens up the square portion of the wall but finds that the port where the connector of his phone was supposed to go to was broken. As Index points out, it is the portion Touma had accidentally "opened up" a while ago. With his plans in disarray, Musset was in a loss. And with Index being a witness to his operations, decides to get rid of her first before doing anything next.

Kamijou Touma becomes involved

Touma then hears noises outside the door. He also hears the familiar sound of Index's whistle as the terrorist leads her to a storage closet and begins strangling her. Paranoia grips Touma and believing the worst, he takes a cart and smashes it through the door. He then finds a closed door and opens it, and there he finds Musset straddling Index and trying to choke her with a hose. Furious, Touma throws Musset away from Index, making him hit the wall before falling to the floor. A scuffle ensues with Touma getting a small cut from Musset's animal bone knife. Touma then grabs the broken handle of the cart and tries to attack Musset. He flinches in fear, but before Touma can strike, the pilot and the female flight attendant appear. Musset then flees before they can arrive.

With Index a priority first, Touma goes to her where she mentions to him about "flight stabilizers". When the crew arrives, he asks them about the flight stabilizers, to which the pilot explains. He essentially states that the emergency landing stabilizers prevent the jet fuel of the plane from exploding when in a belly landing. Now having an inkling of the terrorists' plans, the pilot once again plans to chuck Touma in a room along with Index, separate from the rest of the passengers. As the pilot goes on about his "duty" to protect the lives of the passengers, Touma is infuriated by it. He attacks the pilot with the metal handle, knocking him backwards. He points out that him going along with his plans is what allowed Index to get attacked and that he already failed in his promise of protecting the 500 passengers of the plane by letting her get hurt. Intending to beat up the terrorist, Touma tosses away the metal handle and leaves Index in the hands to the flight attendant as he searches for the terrorist, promising to beat him up until he passes out. After Touma leaves, the pilot then contacts one of the co-pilots, Wash, to leave the piloting to Richmond, and bring the Archery to him. This shocks the flight attendant, as the pilot justifies his request that Touma has become as dangerous as a terrorist.

Meanwhile, Musset has blended in with the passengers, making Touma unable to find him. Wanting to unnerve the man, Touma returns to the wall separating the business and economy classes, and turns on a switch that makes an alarm sound throughout the plane and forces the oxygen masks out of the ceilings for the passengers. It works, and Musset is unnerved, as he believes that the plane might crash in an accident before he could enact his plan. At the same as this, the pilot is also infuriated by the alarm, and tells the co-pilots to stop it and tell the passengers that it was a false alarm. As he prepares to hunt down Touma and the terrorist, the co-pilots tell him that the fuel gauge is going down and that there might be a hole in the tank, requesting for him to return to the cockpit, as well as telling him that they may need to do an emergency landing.

Necessarius becomes involved

In reality it was the work of Necessarius, who, knowing that Index is in the plane and her survival being paramount, the terrorists in Sky Bus 365 was a very important matter. Head of Necessarius and Archbishop Laura Stuart had earlier called for all the heads of the three powers of the United Kingdom, herself, Queen Elizard, and the Knight Leader to meet in St. George's Cathedral, however, only the Knight Leader was present for the meeting as the Queen was too busy.

Using technology and magic, she had an illusion cast on the monitoring devices in Sky Bus 365's cockpit, wanting it to force the hijacker to land in a country highway out of the way of the city like London. Knight Leader throws doubt on the plan since an emergency landing would most likely be difficult in such a time, but Laura says that it is preferable to the plane exploding in the City. Laura then asks a nun passing by where the plane will most likely land, to which she says that it is in the area between Kendal and Carlisle in Cumbria on the highway leading to Scotland. Hearing this, Laura commands Knight Leader to handle the operation there, much to his annoyance. Laura Stuart says that they should be the one to handle it as the terrorist are not magicians and do not have bombs or guns with them, and that he should be thankful as she is handing out an easy job for them. The Knight Leader states that she can rush it if she wants but asks what she is to do if the plane comes apart in midair. Laura coldly replies that they will recover Index Librorum Prohibitorum from on-board with the spell they used on Lidvia, even if the plane were to explode in midair, they can still catch someone from the ground as long as its only one person. Hearing this, the Knight Leader can only wish an early death on her.

Taking out the first terrorist

The pilot decides to do an emergency landing after being fooled by Necessarius' spell. Noticing that the plane is going for an emergency landing even before he can tamper with the stabilizers, Musset goes to the wall area and uses the microphone there to contact the cockpit. There, he bluffs to the captain that he has control over the Sky Bus 365's structural defect and he can bring it down any time he wants. He then demands that if he doesn't want the 500 people on-board to die then the pilot should take them back to the proper altitude. Despite this the pilot says that he cannot do it, confessing to the terrorist what he thinks is happening to the plane. The terrorist threatens again, saying that he will kill passengers one by one after 3 minutes if they still don't follow his demands. The pilot however is adamant in continuing for an emergency landing, saying that even if the terrorist kill half of the passengers, there is still plenty left if he is able to land.

New Light, however has different plans, as they are using the highway that will take them from Edinburgh to Scotland, Necessarius' operations in sealing the roads for an emergency landing of the plane will delay their delivery of Curtana Original to their ally. They then use magic to seal Necessarius' long distance illusion magic. This then allowed the pilot to return to their proper altitude.

Laura Stuart orders Stiyl Magnus to take care of the situation surrounding Sky Bus 365.

Necessarius notices this as well. A nun tells Laura that there has been a large scale interference coming from the direction of Scotland, and thus their illusion was sealed by a third party, making the fuel gauge back to normal. Hearing this, the Knight Leader is angry, asking if French magicians have gotten into the country, or if a magic cabal has betrayed them. Regardless, he tells Laura that it is her mistake, telling her that he thought that she was using the full power of the Anglican Church in order to avoid trouble before it happened. Laura then summons Stiyl Magnus to come to her, and states that she wants him to make preparations regarding the Sky Bus 365 just in case, and asks what he needs. He asks the Knights of England to contact the Air Force since they have control over the military forces for his transportation. Stiyl Magnus later hitches a ride on a large transport plane, from the Royal Air Force.

Meanwhile, Musset notices the change in the plane, but before he can take advantage of the situation, Touma has finally found him. A fight ensues again and Touma easily removes his weapon advantage. With Touma having the complete advantage, he punches Musset several times. Touma later ties him up and puts him in one of the small rooms in the "wall".

Taking out the second terrorist

The flight attendant later informs Touma of what had happened with the fuel gauge. Moreover, Index has regained consciousness and is unperturbed after being strangled. Touma begins to wonder why the terrorist started his actions at the last hour of the flight from Academy City to Edinburgh, as he could've done it any time before the plane reached Great Britain's airspace. Touma recalls that they've landed in Paris earlier to transport goods, and concludes that another terrorist has snuck into the cargo hold likely with weapons, ready to enact another plan if the terrorist's plan failed. Touma then asks if the hatch is the only way to get into the cargo hold, to which the flight attendant confirms, saying only a co-pilot or higher card key can access it. Hearing this, Touma believes that it would be probably difficult to have the pilot assist them. The flight attendant says that though the pilot may not help, she can get a card key from one of the two co-pilots, though says she will not be able to get Archery in order to take the terrorist down. She also says that the cargo taken from France is in the center block.

Seeing that opening the cargo hold would be dangerous, Touma then asks if they could use the ventilation ducts, to use in pouring of hot liquids. Touma then instructs the flight attendant to make use of the hot coffee or any kind of hot liquid from the free drink corner.

Touma fights Eiker Lugoni

Eiker is waiting in the cargo hold. As time passed by, it became obvious to Eiker that Musset has failed with the primary plan. He then hears some noises coming from the ventilation ducts in the ceiling. Thinking, despite the fact that he knew no one should be able to fit, that someone might be coming through it, he fires at where the metal was being bent and is then covered by hot tea. Touma then enters the cargo hold unnoticed by matching the hatch opening and closing with the gunshots. Eiker spins around with his gun, but before he can fire, Touma throws a bucket of boiling coffee he carried with him at Eiker. Touma then kicks Eiker's gun away into the puddle while Eiker writhes in pain. Eiker however then grabs Touma but the collar, lifts him up and slams him to the floor. He then draws a large dagger and swings it down Touma's face. Touma swings his face to the side to avoid the strike, at which point the dagger breaks in two. Eiker tries to bring the dagger down for another attack, but Touma grabs the broken portion and thrusts it into Eiker's thigh. As Touma rolls away, Eiker grabs his handgun.

Furious, Eiker says that he will bring down the plane, blaming England for the damage that was caused on France by the Eurotunnel explosion, and wanting to strike the same amount of damage to it. Touma argues back that there is no proof or reason for England to destroy it's only land route to France, and also argues is that not only is England suffering, France is also aiding the country as well. Eiker then states that it isn't something he'd need worry about as he is going die there. Eiker tries to pull the trigger, but finds out that the gun isn’t firing, due to some of its parts expanding while being submerged in hot coffee. Pointing this out, Touma then punches him several times and knocking him down.

Stiyl releasing his cards next to the plane.

Just as Touma is about to relax, Eiker has already stood up and has grabbed a grenade with him. Touma tries to get grab Eiker's arms, but he is faster and has already reached for the pin. Just before he can pull it, the two hears Stiyl Magnus, telling Touma that he is still an amateur and him hesitating in taking a life endangers others. Stiyl had the transport plane he was on come close to 10 meters next to Sky Bus 365, which was noticed by several people including Index, the captain, and the flight attendant. Stiyl has the back of the transport plane open up, allowing him to send out his rune cards out. With that he uses his flame sword to pierce the hull of the plane in the cargo hold. As the air rushed out, Eiker's body got sucked towards the hole, plugging it. Stiyl tells Touma that the plane is landing in 10 minutes, wondering if Eiker can survive his ordeal. He tells Touma that since he bear's being Index's manager, he would like for him to show him his resolve. As Eiker screams in pain, he tries to pull the pin, but Touma knocks the grenade away. He then mockingly tells Eiker to hang in there.

Aftermath

Sky Bus 365 later lands safely in Edinburgh Airport, Scotland as planned instead of making an emergency landing. In spite of his actions in stopping the terrorists, Kamijou Touma does not receive any recognition nor is rewarded. He and Index later pass from the immigration gate in the airport while the media is busy with the news of the plane. This is likely deliberate because the attack of the plane is deeply entrenched in the politics of the magic side, moreso because magic from the Anglican Church as well as an operative from it, Stiyl Magnus, aided in ending the ordeal. Princess Carissa however, after watching the news of the landing of the plane and discovering information that the transport plane that was taken from the Royal Air Force had used borrowed technology from Academy City, becomes concerned as she believes it is a sign of weakness by the United Kingdom and begins her next move.

Regardless, a media report has merely stated the plane had been in trouble at one point and says that the passengers and crew worked together to solved the problem, without saying any specific names. Both Musset and Eiker are later taken in by the authorities, and is later requested by the French government to extradite them back to France so they can punish them there.

Despite the fact that Sky Bus 365 survives, the terrorist still managed to do some damage. As the airlines are forced to ground the model of Sky Bus 365 and inspect for its structural defect, further crippling the United Kingdom in the transport goods through air routes.