uly 28, 2000, A National Airlines Boeing 757 was stormed by a gunmen at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport Thursday night. The gunman, Aaron Amartei Commey held the pilot and copilot hostage throughout the night along with 143 passengers. Anthony W. Koncel, a pilot with 30 years of experience, was settling in at the instrument panel preparing for another run of  National Airlines Flight 19 from New York to Las.

The gunmen walked through airport security setting off the airports medal detector ran on to the plane with a 10 millimeter handgun and a knife. JFK's Port Authority Police were called in an a hostage negotiator, Detective Sgt. Daniel Karas took command. Ironically the detector along with fellow officers were celebrating his last day on the job. The gunmen released the captain shortly after midnight to convey a message to the authorities that he wished to meet a representative of the Argentine consulate. The hostage takeover ended shortly after the gunmen released the copilot. A United States Marine was on board, when the gunmen released the copilot, the Marine managed to shut the gunman in the cockpit. At which point the passengers were able to escape from the aircraft this morning about 4 am. No one was hurt and the gunmen surrendered to the police.