History was created last night in Jamaica when Stephen Fray, a gunman in his twenties from Montego Bay who is said to be of unsound mind hijacked a Canadian chartered flight, which was preparing for takeoff at the Sangster’s International Airport.

At about 11:00pm the gunman boarded the CANJET with 169 passengers and 8 crew members on board and held them in a hostage situation until 6:40am today when members of the Jamaica Defense Force Counter Terrorism Operations Group entered the cabin of the aircraft and effected a tactical resolution authorized by the incident commando and in the process disarmed and arrested him, while rescuing the other hostages on board.

It was reported that Fray used the staff entrance to the airport posing as a member of the airport’s security team using fake identification cards to breach the system. The gunman proceeded to rob the passengers for about half an hour before some of them were released.

Speculations are that sources at the airport stated that Fray appeared to be of Latin American descent and was requesting to be taken to Cuba.

Whatever transpired I personally am elated that no one was hurt even though it is was confirmed that at least one shot was fired.

The hijacker is now in the custody of the police who are conducting interview sessions with him, while the aircraft’s crew is being provided with counseling and medical services. A calling center was also established to facilitate the families of the victims. Minister of Information, Daryl Vaz said all 169 passengers are safe and was sent to a nearby hotel.

How will this impact on Jamaica, especially while this was happening Canada’s Prime Minister, Stephen Harper is in Jamaica visiting for a two day official visit and arrived here just yesterday? He will be addressing a special joint sitting of Parliament today and holding talks with Prime Minister of Jamaica, Bruce Golding regarding global economic crisis the impending negotiations toward a free trade agreement between CARICOM and Canada.

In an effort to protect the country’s image after last night’s hijacking the government has called for a full investigation into the situation which made headline news all around the world.