British Airways pilot kidnapped outside supermarket during South Africa stopover

Get the free Morning Headlines electronic mail for information from our reporters the world over

Sign as much as our free Morning Headlines electronic mail

A British Airways pilot has been kidnapped and reportedly tortured during a brief stopover in South Africa.

The First Officer is believed to have gone procuring on his personal in Johannesburg when he was approached by a lady in a supermarket automotive park who requested him to assist automotive her luggage to her automotive.

But he was then bundled right into a automobile by a bunch of males, who drove him to a distant location and allegedly subjected him to hours of torture and bodily assaults in an effort to drive him handy over cash.

“It’s staggering what happened to the pilot. It was like something out of the movies,” a supply informed The Sun.

“He fell for the scam of agreeing to help a woman in need, and before he knew it was bundled in a vehicle and driven away.

“He then endured hours of torture and physical assaults. It only ended when he was left penniless. He is just happy to be alive. The incident has shaken crew.”

The pilot was reportedly deemed unable to fly again to London after the ordeal, and the airline reportedly needed to discover a substitute pilot.

The airline confirmed {that a} workers member was kidnapped outside of the gated Melrose Arch precinct, and mentioned it was supporting native authorities with their investigation.

“A crew member was abducted outside Checkers Bluebird supermarket just north of the Melrose Arch complex,” BA mentioned in an announcement to The Sun.

The airline informed The Independent: “We are supporting our colleague and the local authorities with their investigation.”

Kidnappings have been on the rise in South Africa in recent times, with South African Police Service statistics suggesting they’ve greater than tripled within the house of a decade, rising from 4,306 circumstances in 2014 to almost 15,342 in 2023.

More than half of all kidnappings recorded by police in 2023 have been within the Guateng province, of which Johannesburg is the capital metropolis.

Kidnapping for ransom or extortion in South Africa has soared since 2016 as a result of overseas syndicates shifting their operations to the nation, and native copycat teams mimicking their modus operandi however concentrating on South African nationals, in response to the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime’s 2022 threat evaluation for South Africa.

However, nearly all of victims are prone to be low-income residents who don’t report the crime, in response to the UN-backed organisation, that means the police figures might be a big undercount.