A woman armed with a knife aboard a regional domestic flight in New Zealand on Tuesday stabbed attacked the pilots and stabbed them both and threatened to blow up the plane. Her attempt to hijack the twin-propeller plane was put to an end as she was subdued, police said.

Despite the wounds from the stabbing, the two pilots were still able to land the plane in safe conditions in Christchurch. The unusual landing caused disorder at the popular tourist city's airport as police and emergency crews rushed onto the landing strip. The suspect was put under arrest immediately, the six passengers were evacuated, the pilots were rushed to the nearest hospital and the plane was searched for bombs.

All this disorder forced local authorities to close the airport for about three hours.

This incident determined Air New Zealand, the national carrier who operated the flight through a charter company, to declare that it would review its security measures on a national scale. In New Zealand, the passengers and their luggage aren’t subjected to security checks on short flights.

"Today's incident, although a one-off, has naturally given us cause to conduct a thorough review of our safety and security systems and processes on regional domestic flights," said Air New Zealand's general manager of short-haul airlines, Bruce Parton.

The woman was identified as a 33-year-old woman from Somalia. Her name wasn’t released by police.

She attacked the pilots 10 minutes after the take off from the regional city of Blenheim, 40 miles south of the capital of Wellington, to Christchurch, about 220 miles south of the capital. She demanded the pilots to take her to Australia without knowing that the destination was beyond the aircraft's range.

After the attacker was subdued, the pilots made emergency radio calls. After the landing the plane was searched for bombs, but the bomb intervention team found nothing of that sort.

The Somali woman was charged with attempted hijacking, wounding and other offenses.
She will appear court in Christchurch on Saturday, police said.

The passengers aboard the plane included four New Zealanders, an Australian and an Indian national.