text:
Talk:Hand-waving

Poem relevance
From the article:

 * This page is dedicated to Stevie Smith author of the poem Not waving but Drowning.

This isn't a very useful contribution. Please don't do this. -- The Anome 22:48 11 Jul 2003 (UTC)

 * It is a very useful addition. Please don't remove it.Harry Potter 23:57 11 Jul 2003 (UTC)

 * You'll have to explain the relevance of the poem, please, otherwise it looks totally out of context. Evercat 23:58 11 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Literal interpretation - what is the motion?
Question from a non-native english reader: What does handwaving mean in a literal sense? I mean, what movement of the hand/gesture is described by this term? I think this should be added to the article. Thank you. I've done it myself. [unsigned]
 * Wikipedia is not a dictionary. I've removed the section. Robin S (talk) 23:02, 23 November 2008 (UTC)
 * Please note: I also removed a speculative comment about Jedi mind tricks which had been added to this section, as it appeared to be original research. Robin S (talk) 23:08, 23 November 2008 (UTC)

Not limited to math and physics
"used in math and physics"

actually, the term is used in pretty much every technical field, and in business. [unsigned]

Definition?
The first definition seems odd:
 * "both hands up, palms forward, swinging the hands in a vertical plane pivoting at the elbows and/or shoulders (depending on the magnitude of the handwave)"

I tried doing this, and got no gesture that I have ever seen, more like some sort of dance move or something. What I got was a sort of winshield-wiper motion. Either the definition is wrong, or is poorly expressed. The second definition, listed as a mere alternative, is basically the only one I've seen: "alternatively, holding the forearms in one position while rotating the hands at the wrist to make them flutter." Herostratus 14:47, 10 July 2006 (UTC)

I don't agree that handwaving should be contrasted with abstract nonsense. Handwaving connotes a lack of precision. An argument can be concrete without being imprecise. 128.101.152.18 16:40, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

Etymology
Does this phrase come from Obi Wan Kenobi's famous "these aren't the droids you're looking for" or predate it?

 * Predates it. My high school math teacher talked about "handwaving" and "handwavy proofs" (no doubt quoting his own, earlier college teachers) back around 1972. -Potosino 02:18, 20 February 2007 (UTC)

Relative frequency of "handwavium" and "unobtainium"
I found the following comment in the article. Since its point seems to be to argue about whether the article ought to mention "handwavium" at all, rather than to provide encyclopedic information to a non-editor reader, it belongs here on the talk page. Thus moved. –Henning Makholm 00:05, 25 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Note: handwavium is a rarely used term, with only 402 occurrences (excludes Wikipedia) found using Google (4/2007). By contrast, the terms unobtainium (and British variant 'unobtanium') have 159,500 unique occurrences. However, handwavium is mentioned in World Wide Words: Unobtanium.

Missing something
I'm almost dead certain that this article used to mention the Jedi handwave. I think it still should. Whether that concept was the genesis of this term, or George Lucas came up with the Jedi mind trick gesture as an homage to an existing term, I don't personally know (judging from the "1972" testimonial above, probably the latter), but it's pretty clear that the term's popular currency has a lot to do with Star Wars. I'm pretty sure that the Jargon File documents this pretty well (though I wouldn't bet my life savings on it; the JF changes a lot over time, just like WP). Anyway, the point was I think this was in there at some point, and now it's not, and that's a shame. —  SMcCandlish  [talk] [cont] ‹(-¿-)› 13:52, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

Literary Criticism
Jedi mind trick? Role playing games? What does this have to do with literary criticism? Who wrote this section, the high school chess club? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.102.4.81 (talk) 20:19, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

Mike Francesa
I have reverted two anonymous attempts to add the paragraph
 * New York Sports Radio personality Mike Francesa uses the handwave to signal his producers to cut off a caller on his show. This handwave is used in a dismissive manner, letting the caller know that Mike is done with them.

and
 * Mike Francesa of Mike'd up and WFAN is a huge supporter of the handwave. Though some may argue he is the original inventor of the handwave, effidence is hard to find. Mike uses the handwave technique to dismiss phone callers from his show.

First, this is an entirely different case of handwave than the one discussed in the article. A dismissive (actual) hand gesture is something entirely different from the (metaporical) handwave in lieu of argument this article is about. Second, the addition is completely unsourced -- the article in general is not very well sourced (and might not survive and AfD if anyone cared enough to take it there), but attempts to promote a specific named person as a source or prominent example of a cultural phenomenon can reasonably be held to a higher standard of sourcing. We need reliable secondary sources before anybody in particular should be listed as prominent handwavers. –Henning Makholm (talk) 22:48, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

Excellent self-reflexive article example (unintended)
This article has no footnotes, citations or substantiation. The explanations and content range from weak to vacuous. There appears to be extensive original research and many questionable claims presented as fact while many obvious claims, questions and possible allusions are unaddressed.

And the central and most basic question remains unanswered: what is the connection between the physical act of hand-waving and this very common colloquial term? (Does it refer a student waving their hands for attention? A magician waving her hands to conceal something?  A Jedi waving his hands to cloud someone's mind?  A politician waving her hands to the crowd? ...?)

RBarryYoung (talk) 18:38, 3 February 2012 (UTC)

Origin of 'Hand Waving' as an inadequate idea of Proof ?
While there is an apparently 'obvious' genesis of the term, such as the one provided by http://handwaving.askdefine.com/: "The term derives from the use of gestures to add emphasis when stating arguments, and the tendency to continue or increase the gesturing as a substitute for mathematics, when an argument is hard to put across or the proponent is tired of deploying words and/or symbols." , there may in fact be an alternative origin.

George Edward Moore advanced the idea that one could prove the existence of the world by waving his hands. There are a number of references that I have found which seem to refer to "G.E. Moore's hand-waving" (see for example "G.E.Moore's hand-waving" - Philosophy and Its Others: Ways of Being and Mind By William Desmond, "G.E. Moore's hand-waving" -The Agnostic Inquirer: Revelation from a Philosophical Standpoint By Sandra Lee Mensse and GE Moore Hand-waving argument

None of this constitutes proof that this is the origin of the term, but if you read this website's rationale for its name, then quite clearly there is an undercurrent of thought that would suggest that G.E.Moore's naive argument may have been the origin of the term. I can't find any definite earlier use of the term which would appear to predate his 1939 essay (however, see below), but that does not constitute hard and fast evidence. Interestingly, Moore may have come up with the idea of waving his hands as a response to the skeptical position of Descartes taken in his Meditations: "... I will consider myself as without hands…or of any of the senses, and as falsely believing that I am possessed of these." --TonyFleet (talk) 10:27, 16 June 2013 (UTC)

Early Use: I do not know when the term was first used, but I have found many sources from the 1960s which use the term 'hand-waving' to describe inadequate proofs or arguments. Typical is this quote from a 1964 article in Science: "This is not science, but faith; not theory, but theology. Whether it is hand-waving or number-waving or equation-waving, a theory is not a theory unless it can be disproved." Platt, J.R  Strong Inference, Science,  Volume 146, Number 3642, 16 October 1964. From the quote we can detect that by this time (mid 60s) the term must have been in common use. The earliest definite uses I can find on Google Scholar are:
 * Journal of the American Statistical Association, Volume 44 p 155, 1945 (author unknown) text says: " 'Some Considerations of the History of a Few Nations ' discusses largely in hand-waving terms what happens under various degrees of interclass mobility."
 * A Review of "The Origin of the Earth" by Smart & Singerin Physics Today Volume 9 Issue 2 Feb 1956, who write: "Since the authors are both pure mathematicians the treatment is rigorous and does not make any concession to readers who are only interested in applying the results and who would be satisfied by heuristic arguments and vague hand waving in place of a proof."   — Preceding unsigned comment added by TonyFleet (talk • contribs) 08:57, 17 June 2013 (UTC)
 * The American Mathematical Monthly Vol. 64, No. 1, Jan., 1957 - G.E Forsythe in an article called 'Suggestions to Students on Talking about Mathematics Papers' writes:  "... roll up your sleeves and pitch in, and don't try to prove theorems by waving your hands."
 * The Journal of Business Vol. 33, No. 1, Jan., 1960 - Harry V. Roberts in an article called 'The New Business Statistics' writes: "The argument seems intuitively appealing to me. ... Thus, with a bit of hand-waving over details by this reviewer, we see that a complete logical apparatus for determination of sample size is available-without the need for hand-waving by the statistician "

NB I thought I had identified a possible Even Earlier Use: Douglas Waples “A Program for the High-School Teachers’ Institute,” The School Review 34, no. 3 (March 1926): 199-211. At the time I did not have access to the actual text but the Google search summary appears to say "How to counteract "hand-waving." (M) 42. ... 6. In assigning such classics as Burke's Speech on Conciliation, where the course of the entire argument is difficult to grasp in detail, it is wise to present a simple statement of what the argument is about" However, on obtaining the full text, the 'hand waving' refers to what children do in a classroom to get attention, and the rest of the Google summary is an extract from elsewhere in the text. This shows how Google search summaries can often be misleading!

--TonyFleet (talk) 22:21, 16 June 2013 (UTC)

title: Talk:Hand-waving


text:
Not Waving but Drowning

"Not Waving but Drowning" is a poem by the British poet Stevie Smith. It was published in 1957, as part of a collection of the same title. The most famous of Smith's poems, it gives an account of a drowned man, whose distant movements in the water had been mistaken for waving. The poem was accompanied by one of Smith's drawings, as was common in her work.

The poem's personal significance has been the topic of several pieces of literary criticism, because Smith was treated for psychological problems. She contemplated suicide at the age of eight, after what she described as a difficult childhood and her struggle with the fact that her father abandoned her.

Interpretations
Like many of Smith's poems, "Not Waving but Drowning" is short, consisting of only twelve lines. The narrative takes place from a third-person perspective, and describes the circumstances surrounding the "dead man" described in line one. In line five, the poem suggests that the man who has died "always loved larking," which causes his distress signals to be discounted.

The image that Smith attached to the poem shows the form of a girl from the waist up, with her wet hair hanging over her face. Although the image goes with a poem about a man drowning, the girl's expression appears incongruous with the text of the poem, as it forms what Smith scholar Laura Severin describes as a "mysterious smile". Jannice Thaddeus suggests that the speaker of the poem, like other figures in Smith's works, changes from male to female as part of a theme of androgyny that exists in many of the poems found in Selected Poems. Severin suggests that the figure might be Mary, a character in another poem by Smith titled "Cool as a Cucumber". The drawing was used as the accompanying image for the poem "The Frozen Lake" in Selected Poems, a self-edited compilation of Smith's works published in 1962.

Although Ingrid Hotz-Davies suggests that the "drowning man" is Smith herself, she also states that there are problems with reading the poem as a cry for help, due to the humorous tone of the poem, yet at the same time she also notes that the representational form of the poem "may easily be misread as a friendly wave of the hand". The poem's simple diction led Clive James to suggest that Smith attempted to write the poem so that the diction appeared ignorant of poetic convention, yet was carefully crafted to appear more simple than it was. James describes the relationship between Smith and the speaker in "Not Waving but Drowning" by saying, "her poems, if they were pills to cure Melancholy, did not work for [Smith]. The best of them, however, worked like charms for everyone else."

In other media
The poem was performed as part of the 1976 album Tears of Steel & the Clowning Calaveras released by Australian singer Jeannie Lewis (Track 4b), and recited by two actors: Lex Marinos as the "Narrator" (...but still he lay moaning), and Nick Lathouris as the "Dead Man" (I was too far out...)

Australian ambient and alternative music group Not Drowning, Waving take their name from the poem.

A track on Julian Cope's 1991 album Peggy Suicide was titled "Not Raving but Drowning" after the poem.

The poem was set to music by singer-songwriter Vic Chesnutt on his debut album Little, with a spoken introduction from a Stevie Smith recording.

Tanita Tikaram set the poem to music as the b-side to her single "I Might Be Crying".

Erin McKean wrote a short story entitled "Not Waving But Drowning" which was published in Machine of Death, a collection of short stories. In it she talks of the poem and the author.

Composer Nina C. Young set the poem in a piece scored for solo viola, piano, and mixed choir.

English experimental post-punk band This Heat paraphrase the title and theme of the poem in their song "Not Waving", from their 1979 eponymous debut album.

British confessional rapper Loyle Carner used the poem's title for his sophomore album of the same name. The title track features Stevie Smith commenting on the poem over piano chords composed by Jordan Rakei.

Scottish rock band Big Country recorded the song "Not Waving But Drowning" as part of the sessions for the Peace In Our Time album. The track would ultimately end up as a bonus track on the single "King Of Emotion".

In the first episode of the 2020 Netflix series The Queen’s Gambit, the poem is taught and recited in an English class, while chess prodigy Beth Harmon furtively studies a book of chess openings.

The final track of the Welsh art punk band The Victorian English Gentlemens Club's album Bag of Meat is titled "Not Waving But Drowning". Alongside the title, the track's lyrics seem to loosely reference and paraphrase parts of the poem.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Not Waving but Drowning


text:
Denali National Park and Preserve

Denali National Park and Preserve, formerly known as Mount McKinley National Park, is a national park and preserve located in Interior Alaska, United States, centered on Denali, the highest mountain in North America. The park and contiguous preserve encompass 6045153 acre which is larger than the state of New Hampshire. On December 2, 1980, 2146580 acre Denali Wilderness was established within the park. Denali's landscape is a mix of forest at the lowest elevations, including deciduous taiga, with tundra at middle elevations, and glaciers, snow, and bare rock at the highest elevations. The longest glacier is the Kahiltna Glacier. Wintertime activities include dog sledding, cross-country skiing, and snowmobiling. The park received 594,660 recreational visitors in 2018.

Prehistory and protohistory
Human habitation in the Denali Region extends to more than 11,000 years before the present, with documented sites just outside park boundaries dated to more than 8,000 years before the present. However, relatively few archaeological sites have been documented within the park boundaries, owing to the region's high elevation, with harsh winter conditions and scarce resources compared to lower elevations in the area. The oldest site within park boundaries is the Teklanika River site, dated to about 7130 BC. More than 84 archaeological sites have been documented within the park. The sites are typically characterized as hunting camps rather than settlements and provide little cultural context. The presence of Athabaskan peoples in the region is dated to 1,500 - 1,000 years before present on linguistic and archaeological evidence, while researchers have proposed that Athabaskans may have inhabited the area for thousands of years before then. The principal groups in the park area in the last 500 years include the Koyukon, Tanana and Dena'ina people.

Establishment of the park
In 1906, conservationist Charles Alexander Sheldon conceived the idea of preserving the Denali region as a national park. He presented the plan to his co-members of the Boone and Crockett Club. They decided that the political climate at the time was unfavorable for congressional action and that the best hope of success rested on the approval and support of the Alaskans themselves. Sheldon wrote, "The first step was to secure the approval and cooperation of the delegate who represented Alaska in Congress."

In October 1915, Sheldon took up the matter with E. W. Nelson of the Biological Survey at Washington, D.C., and with George Bird Grinnell, with the purpose to introduce a suitable bill in the coming session of Congress. The matter was then taken to the Game Committee of the Boone and Crockett Club and, after a full discussion, it received the committee's full endorsement.

On December 3, 1915, the plan was presented to Alaska's delegate, James Wickersham, who after some deliberation gave his approval. The plan then went to the executive committee of the Boone and Crockett Club and, on December 15, 1915, it was unanimously accepted. The plan was thereupon endorsed by the club and presented to Stephen Mather, Assistant Secretary of the Interior in Washington, D.C., who immediately approved it.

The bill was introduced in April 1916, by Delegate Wickersham in the House and by Senator Key Pittman of Nevada in the Senate. Much lobbying took place the following year, and on February 19, 1917, the bill passed. On February 26, 1917, 11 years from its conception, the bill was signed in legislation by the President of the United States, Woodrow Wilson, thereby creating Mount McKinley National Park.

A portion of Denali, excluding the summit, was included in the original park boundary. The boundary was expanded in 1922 and again in 1932 and 1947 to include the area of the hotel and railroad.

On Thanksgiving Day in 1921, the Mount McKinley Park Hotel opened. In July 1923, President Warren Harding stopped at the hotel, on a tour of the length of the Alaska Railroad, during which he drove a golden spike signaling its completion at Nenana. The hotel was the first thing visitors saw stepping down from the train. The flat-roofed, two-story log building featured exposed balconies, glass windows, and electric lights. Inside were two dozen guest rooms, a shop, a lunch counter, a kitchen, and a storeroom. By the 1930s, there were reports of lice, dirty linen, drafty rooms, and marginal food, which led to the hotel eventually closing. After being abandoned for many years, the hotel was destroyed in 1972 by a fire.

The 93 mi Park Road was completed in 1938 after 17 years of construction.

There was no road access to the park entrance until 1957 when the Denali Highway opened; park attendance greatly expanded: there were 5,000 visitors in 1956 and 25,000 visitors by 1958. In 1971, the George Parks Highway, under piecemeal construction for several years, was completed, providing direct highway connections to Anchorage and Fairbanks. Visitation doubled to 88,000 from 1971 to 1972.

In 1967, the park was the site of one of the deadliest mountaineering accidents in the United States with the Mount McKinley disaster, where seven climbers died in an intense blizzard on Denali. The Park Service debated closing the mountain to climbing in the wake of the accident, but ultimately it remained open.

The park was designated an international biosphere reserve in 1976. A surrounding Denali National Monument was proclaimed by President Jimmy Carter on December 1, 1978, which was combined with the park in 1980.

Naming dispute
The name of Mount McKinley National Park was subject to local criticism from the beginning of the park. The word Denali means "the high one" in the native Athabaskan language and refers to the mountain itself. The mountain was named after newly elected US president William McKinley in 1897 by local prospector William A. Dickey. The United States government formally adopted the name Mount McKinley after President Wilson signed the bill creating Mount McKinley National Park into effect in 1917. In 1980, Mount McKinley National Park was combined with Denali National Monument, and the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act named the combined unit the Denali National Park and Preserve. At that time the Alaska state Board of Geographic Names changed the name of the mountain to Denali. However, the U.S. Board on Geographic Names did not recognize the change and continued to denote the official name as Mount McKinley. This situation lasted until August 30, 2015, when President Barack Obama directed Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell to rename the mountain to Denali, using statutory authority to act on requests when the Board of Geographic Names does not do so in a "reasonable" period.

1990s
In 1992, Christopher McCandless ventured into the Alaskan wilderness and settled in an abandoned bus in the park on the Stampede Trail at 63.86832°N, -149.769°W, near Lake Wentitika. He carried little food or equipment, and hoped to live simply for a time in solitude. Almost four months later, McCandless' starved remains were found, weighing only 67 lb. His story has been widely publicized via articles, books, and films, and the bus where his remains were found has become a shrine attracting people from around the world.

On September 24, 2020, the Museum of The North at the University of Alaska (Fairbanks) announced it became the permanent home of McCandless' 'Magic Bus 142' where it will be restored and an outdoor exhibit will be created.

2000s
On November 5, 2012, the United States Mint released the 15th of its America the Beautiful Quarters series, which honors Denali National Park. The coin's reverse side features a Dall sheep with Denali in the background.

In September 2013, President Barack Obama signed the Denali National Park Improvement Act into law. The statute allows the United States Department of the Interior to "issue permits for microhydroelectric projects in the Kantishna Hills area of the Denali National Park and Preserve in Alaska"; it authorizes the Department of the Interior and a company called Doyon Tourism, Inc. to exchange some land in the area; it authorizes the National Park Service (NPS) to "issue permits to construct a natural gas pipeline in the Denali National Park"; and it renames the existing Talkeetna Ranger Station the Walter Harper Talkeetna Ranger Station. The National Parks Conservation Association supported the bill because the legislation "takes a thoughtful approach to protecting roadless Alaska, promoting renewable energy development, and honoring native Alaskans."

Geography
Denali National Park and Preserve includes the central, highest portion of the Alaska Range, together with many of the glaciers and glacial valleys running southwards out of the range. To the north the park and preserve encompass the valleys of the McKinley, Toklat, and Foraker Rivers, as well as the Kantishna and Wyoming Hills. The George Parks Highway runs along the eastern edge of the park, crossing the Alaska Range at the divide between the valleys of the Chultina River and the Nenana River. The entrance to the park is about 11 mi south of Healy. The Denali Visitor Center and the park headquarters are located just inside the entrance. The park road parallels the Alaska Range for 92 mi, ending at Kantishna. Preserve lands are located on the west side of the park, with one parcel encompassing areas of lakes in the Highpower Creek and Muddy River areas, and the second preserve area covering the southwest end of the high Alaska Range around Mount Dall. In contrast to the park, where hunting is prohibited or restricted to subsistence hunting by local residents, sport hunting is allowed in the preserve lands. Nikolai, Telida, Lake Minchumina, and Cantwell residents are authorized to hunt inside the park because large portions of these communities historically hunted in the area for subsistence purposes.

Vehicle access

The park is serviced by the 92 mi long Denali Park Road, which begins at the George Parks Highway and continues to the west, ending at Kantishna. Located 1 mi within the park, the Denali Bus Depot (which houses a small gift shop, a coffee stand, and an information desk) is the main location to arrange a bus trip into the park or reserve/check-in for a campground site. All shuttle buses depart from here, as do some tours. The Denali Visitor Center is at mile marker 1.5 on the park road and is the main source of visitor information. Most ranger-led programs begin at the Denali Visitor Center. Other features include an exhibit hall. Within a short walking distance from the Visitor Center are a restaurant, a bookstore, the Murie Science and Learning Center, the Denali National Park railroad depot, and the McKinley National Park Airport.

The Denali Park Road runs north of and roughly parallel to the imposing Alaska Range. Only a small fraction of the road is paved because permafrost and the freeze-thaw cycle would create a high cost for maintaining a paved road. The first 15 mi of the road are available to private vehicles, allowing easy access to the Riley Creek and Savage River campgrounds. Private vehicle access is prohibited beyond the Savage River Bridge. There is a turnaround for motorists at this point, as well as a nearby parking area for those who wish to hike the Savage River Loop Trail. Beyond this point, visitors must access the interior of the park through tour/shuttle buses. Individuals wishing to camp at Teklanika Campground (located 29 miles inside the park road) may drive their personal vehicles or RV to and from the campground.

The road has been impacted by the Pretty Rocks landslide at Polychrome Pass at Mile 45.4. NPS believes the landslide has been active since before the road was built, but only required moderate maintenance every 2–3 years. Beginning in 2014, the landslide accelerated considerably, requiring the road crew to spread 100 truckloads of gravel per week to keep the road passable until August 2021, when the park decided to close the road beyond Mile 45 until 2023 at the earliest. After studying potential solutions including re-routing the road, park officials decided to construct a bridge over the landslide which will cost $55 million and is expected to begin in 2022 and take two or three seasons to complete.

The tours travel from the initial boreal forests through tundra to the Toklat River or Kantishna. Several portions of the road run alongside sheer cliffs that drop hundreds of feet at the edges. There are no guardrails. As a result of the danger involved, and because most of the gravel road is only one lane wide, drivers must be trained in procedures for navigating the sharp mountain curves and yielding the right-of-way to opposing buses and park vehicles.

There are four camping areas located within the interior of the park (Sanctuary River, Teklanika River, Igloo Creek, and Wonder Lake). Camper buses provide transportation to these campgrounds, but only passengers camping in the park can use these particular buses. At mile marker 53 on road is the Toklat River Contact Station. All shuttle and tour buses make a stop at Toklat River. The contact station features restrooms, visitor information, and a small bookstore. Eielson Visitor Center is located four hours into the park on the road (at mile marker 66). It features restrooms, daily ranger-led programs during the summer, and on clear days, views of Denali and the Alaska Range. Wonder Lake and Kantishna are a six-hour bus ride from the Visitors Center. During the winter, only the portion of Denali Park Road near the Visitors Center remains open.

Kantishna features five lodges: the Denali Backcountry Lodge, Kantishna Roadhouse, Skyline Lodge, Camp Denali, and North Face Lodge. Visitors can bypass the six-hour bus ride and charter an air taxi flight to the Kantishna Airport. The Kantishna resorts have no TVs, and there is no cell phone service in the area. Lodging with services can be found in McKinley Park, one mile north of the park entrance on the George Parks Highway. Many hotels, restaurants, gift shops, and convenience stores are located in Denali Park.

While the main park road goes straight through the middle of the Denali Wilderness, the national preserve and portions of the park not designated wilderness are even more inaccessible. No roads are extending out to the preserve areas, which are on the northwest and southwest ends of the park. The far north of the park, characterized by hills and rivers, is accessed from the east by the Stampede Trail, a dirt road that effectively stops at the park boundary near the former location of the Into the Wild bus. The rugged south portion of the park, characterized by large glacier-filled canyons, is accessed by Petersville Road, a dirt road that stops about 5 mi outside the park. The mountains can be accessed most easily by air taxis that land on the glaciers. Kantishna can also be reached by air taxi via the Purkeypile Airport, which is just outside the park boundary.

Visitors who want to climb Denali need to obtain a climbing permit first and go through an orientation as well. These can be found at the Walter Harper Talkeetna Ranger Station in Talkeetna, Alaska, about 100 mi south of the entrance to Denali National Park and Preserve. This center serves as the center of mountaineering operations. Hours of operation vary, check the National Park website for specific details.

Savage River, Eielson Visitor Center, and Wonder Lake offer maintained hiking trails, and at Riley Creek, there are several maintained trails including a hike up to Mt. Healy Overlook trail. The park also encourages off-trail hiking.

Wilderness
The Denali Wilderness is a wilderness area within Denali National Park that protects the higher elevations of the central Alaska Range, including Denali. The wilderness comprises about one-third of the current national park and preserve—2146580 acre that correspond with the former park boundaries before 1980.

Geology
Denali National Park and Preserve is located in the central area of the Alaska Range, a mountain chain extending 600 miles across Alaska. Its best-known geologic feature is Denali, formerly known as Mount McKinley. Its elevation of 20310 ft makes it the highest mountain in North America. Its vertical relief (distance from base to peak) of 18000 ft is the highest of any mountain in the world. The mountain is still gaining about 1 mm in height each year due to the continued convergence of the North American and Pacific Plates. The mountain is primarily made of granite, a hard rock that does not erode easily; this is why it has retained such a great height rather than being eroded.

The park area is characterized by collision tectonics: over the past millions of years, exotic terranes in the Pacific Ocean have been moving toward the North American landmass and accreting, or attaching, to the area that now makes up Alaska. The oldest rocks in the park are part of the Yukon-Tanana terrane. They originated from ocean sediments deposited between 400 million and 1 billion years ago. The original rocks have been affected by the processes of regional metamorphism, folding, and faulting to form rocks such as schist, quartzite, phyllite, slate, marble, and limestone. The next oldest group of rocks is the Farewell terrane. It is composed of rocks from the Paleozoic era (250-500 million years old). The sediments that make up these rocks were deposited in a variety of marine environments, ranging from deep ocean basins to continental shelf areas. The abundant marine fossils are evidence that around 380 million years ago, this area had a warm, tropical climate. The Pingston, McKinley, and Chulitna terranes are the next oldest; they were deposited in the Mesozoic era. The rock types include marble, chert, limestone, shale, and sandstone. There are intrusions of igneous rocks, such as gabbro, diabase, and diorite. Special features include pillow basalts, which are formed when molten lava flows into water and a hard outer crust forms, making a puffy, pillow-shaped feature; as well as an ophiolite sequence, which is a distinct sequence of rocks indicating that a section of the oceanic crust has been uplifted and thrust onto a continental area. Some of the youngest rocks in the park include the Kahiltna terrane, which is a flysch sequence (a sedimentary rock sequence deposited in a marine environment during the early stages of mountain building) formed about 100 million years ago, during late Cretaceous time. Another rock sequence is the McKinley Intrusive Sequence, which includes Denali. The Cantwell Volcanics include basalt and rhyolite flows, as well as ash deposits. An example can be seen at Polychrome Pass in the park.

Mesozoic fossils include fossil trackways from therizinosaurids and hadrosaurids in the Cantwell Formation indicate the area was once an immigration point for dinosaurs traveling between Asia and North America during the Late Cretaceous period. Studies of fossil plants from the same formation indicate the area was wet, with marshes and ponds throughout the region.

Denali National Park and Preserve are located in an area of intense tectonic activity: the Pacific Plate is subducting under the North American plate, creating the Denali fault system, which is a right-lateral strike-slip fault over 720 miles long. This is a part of the larger fault system which includes the famous San Andreas Fault of California. Over 600 earthquakes occur in the park each year, helping seismologists to understand this fault system. Most of these earthquakes are too small to be felt, although two large earthquakes did occur in 2002. On October 23, 2002, a magnitude 6.7 earthquake occurred in the park, and on November 3, 2002, a magnitude 7.9 earthquake occurred. These earthquakes did not cause a significant loss of life or property, since the area is very sparsely populated, but they did trigger thousands of landslides.

Glaciers
Glaciers cover about 16% of the 6 million acres of Denali National Park and Preserve. Measurements indicate that glaciers in the park are losing about 6.6 ft (2 m) of vertical water equivalency each year. There are more extensive glaciers on the southeastern side of the range because more snow is dropped on this side from the moisture-bearing winds from the Gulf of Alaska. The 5 largest south-facing glaciers are Yentna (20 miles long), Kahiltna (30 miles), Tokositna (23 miles), Ruth (31 miles), and Eldrige (30 miles). The Ruth glacier is 3800 ft thick. However, the largest glacier, Muldrow Glacier (32 miles long), is located on the north side. Nonetheless, the northern side has smaller and shorter glaciers overall. Muldrow glacier has "surged" twice in the last hundred years. Surging means that it has moved forward for a short time at greatly increased speed, due to a build-up of water between the bottom of the glacier and the bedrock channel floating on the ice (due to hydrostatic pressure).

At the upper ends of Denali's glaciers are steep-walled semicircular basins called cirques. Cirques form from freeze-thaw cycles of meltwater in the rocks above the glacier and glacial erosion and mass wasting occur under the glacier. As cirques on the opposite sides of a ridge are cut deeper into the divide, they form a narrow, sharp, serrated ridge called an arête. As the arête wears away from glacial ice erosion, the low point between cirques is called a col (or if it is large a pass). Cols are saddle-shaped depressions in the ridge between cirques. A spire-like sharp peak, the horn, forms when cirques cut back into a mountaintop from three or four sides.

Glaciers deposit rock fragments, but the most notable of the depositions are the erratics, which are large rock fragments carried some distance from the source, found on glacial terraces and ridge tops in many places throughout Denali. Headquarter erratics are made of granite and can be the size of a house. Some erratics (like those from the Yanert Valley) are located 30 miles away from their original location. Large amounts of rock debris are carried on, in, and beneath the ice as the glaciers move downslope. Lateral moraines are created as debris accumulates as low ridges of till that ride along the edge of the moving glaciers. When lateral moraines adjacent to each other join, they create medial moraines, which are also carried down on the surface of the moving ice.

Braided meltwater streams heavily loaded with rock debris continually shift and intertwine their channels over valley floors. Valley trains are built up as streams drop quantities of poorly sorted sediment. Valley trains are long, narrow accumulations of glacial outwash, confined by valley walls.

Kettles are formed when glacial retreat and melting is rapid, and blocks of ice are still buried under till. When the ice under the till melts, the till slumps in and forms depressions called kettles. When kettles fill with water, they are known as kettle lakes. Kettle lakes are visible near the Polychrome Overlook, the Teklanika rest stop, and Wonder Lake.

Permafrost
Permanently frozen ground is known as permafrost. The permafrost is discontinuous in Denali due to differences in vegetation, temperatures, snow cover, and hydrology. The active layer freezing and thawing seasonally can be from 1 inch (25 mm) to 10 feet (3.0 m) thick. The permafrost layer is located between 30 and 100 feet (9.1 and 30.5 m) below the active layer. A stand of oddly leaning white spruce growing on a lower slope of Denali is called the Drunken Forest. The trees lean due to the soil sliding as a result of permafrost freeze/thaw cycles. Permafrost impacts the ecosystem in the park by influencing hydrology, patterns of vegetation, and wildlife. During the very cold Pleistocene climates, all of Denali was solidly frozen. The northern areas of the range are still frozen due to continued cold temperatures. About 75% of Denali had near-surface permafrost, or an active permafrost layer, in the 1950s. In the 2000s, around 50% of Denali had near-surface permafrost. It is suspected that by the 2050s, only about 6% of surface permafrost will remain. Because of climate change, most of the shallow permafrost is thawing. It is estimated that with an additional 1-2 degree warming, most of Denali's permafrost will thaw. Permafrost thaw causes landslides as the ice-rich soil transforms into mud slurry. Landslides have previously impacted accessibility in Denali by obstructing the roads in the park. Permafrost thaw releases additional carbon into the atmosphere.

Shallow ponds in Denali are known as thaw lakes and cave-in lakes that are formed when the water warmed by the sun forms basins in the underlying permafrost. These ponds deepen gradually during the summer and, if the temperature is high enough, they will grow in size as their rims collapse. Thermal expansion and contraction causes permafrost cracking. In the summer water fills these cracks and forms veins called ice wedges. These wedges enlarge with seasonal freezing/thawing cycles. Some ice wedges buried for centuries are revealed during excavations or landslides.

Climate
According to the Köppen climate classification, Denali National Park has a subarctic climate (Dfc). The plant hardiness zone at Denali Visitor Center is 3a with an average annual extreme minimum temperature of -38.9 °F.

Long winters are followed by short growing seasons. Eighty percent of the bird population returns after cold months, raising their young. Most mammals and other wildlife in the park spend the brief summer months preparing for winter and raising their young.

Summers are usually cool and damp, but temperatures in the 70s are not rare. The weather is so unpredictable that there have even been instances of snow in August.

The north and south side of the Alaskan Range have completely different climates. The Gulf of Alaska carries moisture to the south side, but the mountains block water to the north side. This brings a drier climate and huge temperature fluctuations to the north. The south has transitional maritime continental climates, with moister, cooler summers, and warmer winters.

Ecology

The Alaska Range is a mountainous expanse running through the entire park, strongly influencing the park's ecosystems. Vegetation in the park depends on the altitude. The treeline is at 2500 ft, causing most of the park to be a vast expanse of tundra. In the lowland areas of the park, such as the western sections surrounding Wonder Lake, spruces and willows dominate the forest. Most trees and shrubs do not reach full size, due to unfavorable climate and thin soils. There are three types of forest in the park: from lowest to highest, they are low brush bog, bottomland spruce-poplar forest, and upland spruce-hardwood forest. The forest grows in a mosaic, due to periodic fires.

In the tundra of the park, layers of topsoil collect on rotten fragmented rock moved by thousands of years of glacial activity. Mosses, ferns, grasses, and fungi grow on the topsoil. In areas of muskeg, tussocks form and may collect algae. The term 'muskeg' includes spongy waterlogged tussocks as well as deep pools of water covered by solid-looking moss. Wild blueberries and soap berries thrive in the tundra and provide the bears of Denali with the main part of their diet.

Over 450 species of flowering plants fill the park and can be viewed in bloom throughout summer. Images of goldenrod, fireweed, bluebell, and gentian filling the valleys of Denali are often used on postcards and in the artwork.

Denali is home to a variety of North American birds and mammals, including an estimated 300-350 grizzly bears on the north side of the Alaska Range (70 bears per 1,000 square miles) and an estimated 2,700 black bears (334 per 1,000 square miles). , park biologists were monitoring about 51 wolves in 13 packs (7.4 wolves per 1,000 square miles), while surveys estimated 2,230 caribou in 2013, and 1,477 moose in 2011. Dall sheep are often seen on mountainsides. Smaller animals such as coyotes, hoary marmots, shrews, Arctic ground squirrels, beavers, pikas, and snowshoe hares are seen in abundance. Red and Arctic fox species, martens, Canada lynx, and wolverines also inhabit the park but are more rarely seen due to their elusive natures.

Many migratory bird species reside in the park during late spring and summer. There are waxwings, Arctic warblers, pine grosbeaks, and northern wheatears, as well as ptarmigan and the tundra swan. Raptors include a variety of hawks, owls, and gyrfalcons, as well as the abundant but striking golden eagles.

Ten species of fish, including trout, salmon, and Arctic grayling, share the waters of the park. Because many of the rivers and lakes of Denali are fed by glaciers, glacial silt and cold temperatures slow the metabolism of the fish, preventing them from reaching normal sizes. A single amphibious species, the wood frog, also lives among the lakes of the park.

There are several non-native species in the park including common dandelion, narrowleaf hawksbeard, white sweet clover, bird vetch, yellow toadflax, and scentless false mayweed. There are 28 invasive species documented in the park and 15 of these species are considered a threat. Volunteers and park rangers work to keep non-native plant populations low.

Denali park rangers maintain a constant effort to keep wildlife wild by limiting the interaction between humans and park animals. Feeding any animal is strictly forbidden, as it may cause adverse effects on the feeding habits of the creature. Visitors are encouraged to view animals from safe distances. In August 2012 the park experienced its first known fatal bear attack when a lone hiker apparently startled a large male grizzly while photographing it. Analysis of the scene and the hiker's camera strongly suggest he violated park regulations regarding backcountry bear encounters, which all permit holders are made aware of. Certain areas of the park are often closed due to uncommon wildlife activity, such as denning areas of wolves and bears or recent kill sites.

title: Denali National Park and Preserve


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Constance of Castile (disambiguation)

Constance of Castile may refer to:

 * Constance of Castile (1141–1160), wife of Louis VII of France
 * Constanza Manuel (1323–1345), wife of Alfonso XI of Castile and Peter I of Portugal
 * Constance of Castile, Duchess of Lancaster (1354–1394), claimant to the throne of Castile

title: Constance of Castile (disambiguation)


text:
User talk:Strange Glue

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Unreferenced BLPs
Hello Strange Glue! Thank you for your contributions. I am a bot alerting you that 1 of the articles that you created  is tagged as an Unreferenced Biography of a Living Person. The biographies of living persons policy requires that all personal or potentially controversial information be sourced. In addition, to insure verifiability, all biographies should be based on reliable sources. if you were to bring this article up to standards, it would greatly help us with the current Category:All_unreferenced_BLPs article backlog. Once the article is adequately referenced, please remove the unreferencedBLP tag. Here is the article:

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 * 1) Armin Shimerman -

Use of a quote on your website
I certainly don't mind being quoted on your very interesting website, but perhaps it would be good to mention and/or provide a link to the wikipedia article transitional fossils as a whole some place on your site per. It is true that I wrote the sentences you quoted, but wikipedia articles are the product of a collaborative effort and several editors contributed to that article. Rusty Cashman (talk) 07:40, 6 February 2011 (UTC)

title: User talk:Strange Glue


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Air France Flight 8969

Air France Flight 8969 was an Air France flight that was hijacked on 24 December 1994 by the Armed Islamic Group of Algeria (GIA) at Houari Boumediene Airport, Algiers. The terrorists murdered three passengers and their intention was either to detonate the aircraft over the Eiffel Tower or the Tour Montparnasse in Paris. When the aircraft reached Marseille, the National Gendarmerie Intervention Group (GIGN), a counter-terror unit of the French National Gendarmerie, stormed the plane and killed all four hijackers.

The incident led to Air France halting their flights to Algeria until 2004, two years after the end of the Algerian Civil War.

Background
Algeria was in a state of civil war at the time of the hijacking. Aircraft flying to Algeria faced the possibility of missile attacks. As a result, Air France's flights to Algeria had crews composed entirely of people who volunteered for the route. Air France had asked government officials if it absolutely had to continue flying to Algeria; by the time of the hijacking, it had not received a reply.

Crew
Bernard Dhelemme, aged 51, was the captain of the flight. Jean-Paul Borderie was the copilot, and Alain Bossuat was the flight engineer.

Aircraft
The Airbus A300B2-1C, registered as F-GBEC, MSN 104, first flew on 28 February 1980 and was delivered to Air France on 8 April. The aircraft was equipped with two General Electric CF6-50C2R engines.

24 December
On 24 December 1994, at Houari Boumedienne Airport in Algiers, four armed men boarded Air France Flight 8969 which was due to depart for Orly Airport, Paris at 11:15a.m. The men were dressed as Algerian presidential police; they wore blue uniforms with Air Algérie logos. Their presence originally did not cause any alarm. Two of the men began inspecting the passengers' passports while one went into the cockpit and the fourth stood guard. Claude Burgniard, a veteran flight attendant, recalled noticing that the "police" were armed and one of them had dynamite showing, which she considered to be unusual as the Algerian police were not normally armed when carrying out checks. The Algerian military felt suspicious on noticing that the Air France flight appeared to have an unauthorised delay, so they began surrounding the aircraft. Zahida Kakachi, a passenger, recalled seeing members of the Special Intervention Group (GIS), known as "ninjas", outside the aircraft. Kakachi recalled hearing one of the "police" say "Tāghūt (الطَّاغُوت)," an Arabic word for "tyrant", upon seeing the GIS men gathering outside the A300; she then realised that the four men on board the plane were terrorists. The four hijackers then revealed that they were not police, but mujahideen seeking to establish an Islamic state in Algeria. They had hijacked the aircraft because the national airline Air France was a symbol of France, which they viewed as infidel foreign invaders.

The leader, Abdul Abdullah Yahia, already a notorious murderer, and the other three members of the Armed Islamic Group (Groupe Islamique Armé, or GIA) brandished firearms and explosives and announced their allegiance to the GIA, demanding co-operation from the 220 passengers and 12 flight crew. The hijackers had Kalashnikov automatic rifles, Uzi submachine guns, pistols, homemade hand grenades and two 10-stick dynamite packs. Later, at one point during the flight, the men placed one pack of dynamite in the cockpit and one pack under a seat in the middle of the aircraft, then linked them with detonator wire. They also took the uniforms of the pilots to confuse Algerian army snipers.

"Allah has chosen us to die and Allah has chosen you to die with us. Allah guarantees our success, Insha'Allah."

- Abdul Abdullah Yahia

Burgniard recalled that the hijackers, in particular one called "Lotfi", disliked seeing a lack of adherence to their Islamic beliefs; according to Burgniard, the hijackers objected to men and women sitting together and sharing the same toilets and women having their heads uncovered. Once they had taken control of the aircraft, the hijackers forced the women to cover their heads, including the cabin crew members. Women who did not have veils used aircraft blankets as head coverings. An elderly Algerian man told the TF1 network that the hijackers "had a kind of art in their terror. Twenty minutes of relaxation and twenty minutes of torture. You never knew what was next."

The men stated over the aircraft's cockpit radio: "We are the Soldiers of Mercy. Allah has selected us as his soldiers. We are here to wage war in his name."

- Abdul Abdullah Yahia

Abderrahmane Meziane Chérif, the Minister of the Interior of Algeria, came to the airport control tower to begin negotiating with the hijackers, who were using the captain to speak for them. They demanded the release of two Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) political party leaders, Abassi Madani and Ali Belhadj, who were under house arrest; the FIS was banned in Algeria in 1992. Chérif demanded that the hijackers begin releasing children and the elderly if they wanted to talk to the Algerian government. The media began arriving at the airport to cover the crisis.

At noon, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Alain Juppé, organised a crisis team meeting (similar to UK’s COBRA emergency crisis meeting), and Charles Pasqua, Interior Minister of France, met his aides. French Prime Minister Édouard Balladur was recalled from his Christmas holiday in Chamonix, France, and other government officials were also summoned from their vacations. Balladur recollected spending the entire afternoon on the telephone, trying to determine what was happening and feeling confused. According to Balladur, the Algerian authorities wanted to crack down on the terrorists and Balladur himself encountered difficulties discussing the events. At one point, the hijackers dropped the demand for the release of the FIS party leaders. Two hours into the hijacking, the men told the captain to depart for Paris so that they could hold a press conference there. The captain could not take off because the aircraft boarding stairs were still attached to the plane and the Algerian authorities were blocking the runway with parked vehicles. When the hijackers forced the captain to ask for the boarding stairs to be removed, the Algerian authorities refused, determined not to give in to any of the hijackers' demands. The GIA men announced that they would detonate the aircraft unless the Algerian authorities followed their orders.

During the passport check, the hijackers had noticed that one of the passengers on the flight was an Algerian police officer. In order to force the Algerian government to comply with their demands, the hijackers approached the police officer and told him to follow them. Kakachi remembered that the police officer, seated two rows behind her, was hesitant as he did not know what they were going to do. Several passengers recalled him pleading "Don't kill me, I have a wife and child!" The hijackers shot the police officer in the head at the top of the boarding stairs. The pilots and most of the passengers were not aware at first that the man had been killed. Captain Delhemme recalled that his first contact with the passenger cabin during the hijacking was when a flight attendant, allowed into the cockpit, asked the pilots if they needed anything. According to Delhemme, he asked for a glass of water from the attendant to ease the pilots' parched throats. At this point, the attendant whispered to Delhemme that the hijackers had killed a passenger.

The Algerian authorities still refused to agree to the hijackers' demands. Burgniard recalled that he and the other occupants began to realise that "things were going wrong" when the hijackers came to collect another passenger. They selected 48-year-old Bui Giang To, a commercial attaché at the Embassy of Vietnam in Algeria. Burgniard described To as "the real foreigner on this plane". She remembered that To was not intimidated by the hijackers and she believed that this attitude upset the hijackers. The Vietnamese diplomat may have thought he was about to be released because he was a foreigner; instead he was shot dead on the boarding stairs. Delhemme recalled that when the flight attendant next appeared with refreshments, she whispered to him that two passengers, not one, had died.

The French government wanted to bring French military personnel into Algeria to safely resolve the hijacking, but the Algerian government would not allow foreign military to land on Algerian soil to resolve an Algerian political crisis. Prime Minister Balladur said that he asked the Algerian government "extremely forcefully and urgently" to give permission for the aircraft to take off. He felt that the French government held responsibility for solving the problem as the aircraft belonged to a French airline and almost a third of the passengers were French.

Seven hours into the hijacking, the cabin was calm but tense; at that point, few of the passengers knew that two people had been killed. It had grown dark outside and the aircraft was surrounded by spotlights. The pilots now attempted to defuse the situation by talking to the hijackers and trying to gain their trust. Delhemme explained that the beginning of a hijacking is violent, so the role of the pilot is to keep the participants calm, "buy time", show the hijackers who the crew are as people, and find out details about the hijackers; then the pilot has to try gaining the trust of the hijackers.

During the night, Spanish authorities allowed the French military to send its forces to Majorca, Spain, which was as close to Algeria as was possible without being accused of interfering in the situation. At 8:00p.m., Groupe d'Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale (GIGN) operatives boarded an Airbus A300 aircraft similar to F-GBEC, the hijacked plane, at a military base in France. En route to Majorca, the GIGN operatives were able to familiarise themselves with the A300 in preparation for storming the aircraft. After the GIGN's plane arrived at Palma de Mallorca Airport, the Algerian government made it clear that French forces were not welcome in Algeria.

25 December
Captain Delhemme made a tour of the cabin at about 2:00a.m. the next morning to check on the situation; he said that the cabin was "calm" during that time. He noticed two of the hijackers asleep on the floor. In the morning, French Prime Minister Édouard Balladur flew to Paris.

New information arrived at the Consulate General of France in Oran, Algeria, via a mole in the GIA: "We received this information directly from members of the Algerian secret service. And this information was very worrying. The terrorists' true aim was to crash the plane in Paris."

- French Minister of the Interior Charles Pasqua

Police confirmed this plan after a raid on a safe house.

The hijackers released some of the passengers, mainly women with young children and those with severe medical conditions. Over 170 people still remained on board the plane. The hijackers offered to release the remaining Algerian passengers, but the Algerians refused to leave the aircraft. Delhemme recalled that one passenger who was refusing to leave said that he thought the crew would be killed if he did, and Delhemme believes that the passengers' motives were sincere. By the end of 25 December, the hijackers had freed a total of 63 passengers.

The Algerian police used night vision devices to identify the lead hijacker, who was Abdul Abdullah Yahia. The French government sent Yahia's mother to plead for him to release the passengers, in the hope that she could persuade her son to give in, but the tactic backfired. One passenger, Kakachi, recalled Yahia becoming enraged by this move. At this point, the hijackers began targeting the French passengers; there were two staff members of the French Embassy in Algiers on board the flight, a secretary and a chef. The hijackers forced the chef, Yannick Beugnet, to plead into the microphone. Through Beugnet, they demanded that unless the Algerian government cleared the A300 for takeoff before 9:30p.m., they would kill one passenger every 30 minutes, starting with Beugnet. They threatened to shoot him and throw him out of the door. The Algerian passengers assured him that the hijackers were bluffing while the French passengers were demanding that the aircraft be allowed to take off. When the 9:30p.m. deadline passed, the hijackers shot Beugnet and threw his body outside. The door open warning light in the cockpit indicated to the pilots that another passenger had been murdered. Enraged, Captain Delhemme yelled at the Algerian authorities, "See what you get when you play tough?!" The airline knew that the chef had been murdered as it was listening in on the conversations between the aircraft and the control tower. Philippe Legorjus, a former Air France security adviser, said in an interview that the airline employees "lived through [the event] with great emotion." Zahida Kakachi recalled Lotfi calmly trying to convert her and another stewardess to Islam, though Kakachi was only pretending so that she would not enrage him.

The French government were informed of the events. Balladur spoke on the telephone to the Prime Minister of Algeria, Mokdad Sifi; he told him that the French government would hold the Algerian government responsible for the outcome if it did not authorise them to intervene in the situation. Just before midnight, Balladur told the President of Algeria, Liamine Zéroual, that France was ready to receive the Air France flight. As a result of Balladur's demands, 39 hours after the start of the hijacking, Zéroual allowed the aircraft to leave Algiers. Flight attendant Claude Burgniard recalled that everyone was relieved when the aircraft departed because they thought the crisis was over.

There was insufficient fuel on board the plane to reach Paris, because the auxiliary power unit had been running since the hijackers took over the plane, so a refuelling stop was scheduled at Marseille Provence Airport. Delhemme confronted Yahia to find out whether he planned to blow up the aircraft between Algiers and Marseille. Yahia insisted that the plane would fly to Marseille, take on fuel, then fly to Paris for the press conference; reassured, Delhemme prepared for takeoff. In an interview, Delhemme suggested that the hijackers would probably have said this anyway to prevent the crew from taking action against them. Burgniard recalled that the hijackers, in the cockpit, seemed excited and "like kids".

26 December
The aircraft approached Marseille during the early hours of 26 December. The hijackers did not know that Major Denis Favier's GIGN squad was already in Marseille, having flown from Majorca to a military base near Marseille, and planned to storm the aircraft while it was in Marseille. The GIGN squad practised entering the A300 before Flight 8969 arrived in Marseille. Favier explained in an interview that the enemy was arriving in friendly territory, and the power difference would be a key element in the struggle. Flight 8969 landed at 3:33a.m.

Steward Claude Burgniard said that the hijackers felt that the landing in Marseille was a "magic moment" as they had arrived in France. Burgniard recalled that the airport was dark and that she only saw the lights of the A300 and a car that the A300 followed. The French authorities deliberately led the aircraft away from the terminal and into a remote corner of the airport. By 26 December, the French government had received information stating that the hijackers had planned to attack Paris. Favier planned to appear conciliatory and prolong the negotiations as long as possible. He believed that the hijackers were tired, so he planned to wear them down. Alain Gehin, the Chief of Police of Marseille, spoke to the group of hijackers in the control tower. Gehin implemented Favier's strategy.

While using Delhemme to speak for them, the hijackers asked for 27 tons of fuel; the aircraft needed approximately 9 tons to fly to Paris from Marseille. The request indicated to the French authorities that the aircraft was going to be used as a firebomb or to fly the aircraft to an Islamic country sympathetic to the hijackers' cause. Hours later, the authorities received word of the firebomb plot. Passengers who were released in Algiers stated that the A300 had been rigged with explosives. Demolition experts determined that the plane was likely rigged in a way that would cause it to explode. Charles Pasqua said in an interview that the French government had decided that the aircraft was not going to leave Marseille, regardless of the consequences.

At around 8:00a.m., the hijackers demanded that the forces let the aircraft take off by 9:40a.m. The negotiators delayed the ultimatum by giving the aircraft additional food and water, emptying the toilet tanks, and providing vacuum cleaners. The GIGN operatives servicing the aircraft were disguised as airport personnel. They discovered the aircraft doors were not blocked or booby trapped. The men planted eavesdropping devices while others trained long-range "cannon" microphones on the A300's fuselage and windows. Favier's group asked the hijackers if they would rather do a press conference in Marseille instead of Paris, since all of the major media outlets had offices in Marseille. The hijackers agreed to hold a press conference on the A300. The negotiators requested that the front of the aircraft be cleared for the press conference. This was to create an area for the GIGN during the storming of the aircraft. Favier explained in an interview that the press conference was an important tactic as it allowed the passengers to be moved to the rear of the aircraft. The hijackers did not realise that the doors of the A300 could be opened from the outside.

Twelve hours after the A300 arrived at Marseille, the GIGN knew how many hijackers were on board and their location on the aircraft with the help of eavesdropping devices, infrared vision equipment, and "cannon" microphones. It intended to wait until sunset to take advantage of the darkness. The occupants of the aircraft were unaware of the GIGN's true motives, and the militants were confused about why the press had not yet arrived. Yahia, frustrated by the absence of the press and sensing the authorities were up to something, ordered the pilot to move the aircraft. Delhemme parked the aircraft at the foot of the airport control tower and in close proximity to the terminal and other aircraft. An explosion in this position would result in many more casualties than in the earlier, remote location.

This was a tactical disadvantage for the GIGN; the positions were based on the aircraft being parked where the French authorities ordered the placement of the A300. When the aircraft moved, the GIGN had to quickly reorganise its forces. Favier placed snipers on the roof so they would have a view of the cockpit. He organised a group of thirty men with three passenger boarding stairs to rush the aircraft and take it over. Favier planned to have two teams, each with 11 people, open the rear left and rear right doors of the A300. A third team of eight would open the front right door. The forces planned to isolate the cockpit, with Yahia, from the rest of the aircraft.

By 5:00p.m., the authorities had not delivered any amount of fuel to the A300. Yahia entered the cabin to choose a fourth person to kill. He selected the youngest member of the Air France crew, who had told the hijackers that he was an atheist. Yahia felt reluctant to kill a fourth passenger at that point, saying "I don't want to do this. But I have no choice." Burgniard stated in an interview that she did not know whether Yahia had decided not to execute the crew member; she knew that he kept delaying the execution. Instead, the hijackers opened the door and fired around the aircraft. Zahida Kakachi, a passenger, recalled that the hijackers began reciting verses from the Quran on the public address system. The verses were prayers for the dead. According to Kakachi, the passengers were silent and began to feel panicked. The hijackers knew the negotiators were in the control tower, so through the side window of the cockpit, they began to fire automatic machine guns towards the control tower. Philippe Legorjus, who at the time was the airline's security adviser, recalled that glass shattered all around the negotiators. Captain Delhemme said that throughout the time in Marseille, there had been tension, but "nothing like what seemed to be about to happen". Balladur allowed Favier to take whatever actions he felt were necessary; after the hijackers fired at the control tower, Favier decided to begin the raid.

Raid
Once the hijackers noticed the boarding stairs moving towards them, they recognised the imminent assault. Through the cockpit window, a hijacker fired upon the stairs containing the forward GIGN team. As the first stairs reached the front starboard (right) door, it became apparent that it was elevated too high relative to the door frame for a uniform entry into the aircraft. The GIGN had trained on an empty aircraft, in which the suspension system of the plane was not as compressed, leading to an overestimation of the necessary height of the boarding stairs. After a short delay in repositioning the stairs, GIGN forces were able to enter. The hijackers returned fire, attacking the GIGN forces. One hijacker was killed instantly. Then, the two other units entered the rear of the aircraft. The participants fired hundreds of bullets. The hijackers fired through the skin of the aircraft. Grenades erupted and smoke went through the cabin. The GIGN's concussion grenades temporarily blinded and deafened occupants, allowing the GIGN to storm the aircraft. One of the hijackers' homemade grenades detonated, causing limited damage. The snipers on the tower could not initially get a clear shot into the aircraft as the copilot, Jean-Paul Borderie, blocked their view. Moments later, Borderie pulled himself out of the cockpit window and dropped to the ground. With the view unobstructed, the snipers began firing into the cockpit, while the GIGN evacuated passengers in the rear of the aircraft.

Flight attendant Claude Burgniard described the firefight as "the apocalypse". Christophe Morin, a flight attendant, recalled that the GIGN ordered passengers and crew to get down as low as possible with their hands over their heads, hide, and then to not move. Morin described the situation as "violent". He recalled putting his overcoat over his head so he would not see the tracer bullets and other occurrences during the raid. Morin said that he tried to help a female passenger next to him escape, but she was too large and Morin was unable to move her, so the two held hands. Pilot Bernard Delhemme said that he was in "a rather bad spot", so he crouched and made himself "as small as possible".

A few minutes after the beginning of the assault, most of the passengers had escaped. At that point, three of the four hijackers were fatally shot. Delhemme recalled that the cockpit only had himself, the flight engineer, and the last hijacker. Delhemme said that the hijacker could have killed him and his colleagues out of spite, but did not. In an interview, Denis Favier explained that there likely was a mutual recognition and "respect" between the hijackers and the hostages. He believes the bonds between the hijackers and hostages helped save lives of passengers and crew in the conflict.

GIGN commando Philippe Bardelli was leading a column up the front right stairs, as that team was tasked with throwing stun grenades in the cockpit, when a 7.62 × 39 mm bullet from an AK-47 hit his drawn pistol and detonated the cartridges; Bardelli later remarked that his pistol thereby saved his life, since such AK-47 rounds were able to penetrate the GIGN's helmet visors. The remaining hijacker kept the GIGN at bay for 20 minutes, but he eventually ran out of ammunition and died from a gunshot wound. Meanwhile, the GIGN operatives were not sure which men were the hijackers and how many were still alive, so they considered all male passengers as potentially being hijackers. The flight engineer, Alain Bossuat, radioed the tower stating that the hijackers were dead and that there were no more left. This signaled to GIGN forces that a final clearing of the A300 could begin. Delhemme said that when the forces entered the aircraft, they ordered him to put his hands on his head. Delhemme said that, after the hijacking ordeal had run its course, he refused to leave with his hands on his head and be "punished like a child". Burgniard said that when she saw Bossuat handcuffed, the cabin crew told the forces to let him go as the individual was the flight engineer. At 5:35p.m., Favier radioed to the tower that the incident was over; the incident had unfolded over 54 hours.

All of the hijackers had been killed. The remaining passengers and crew survived the 20-minute gun battle. Of the remaining passengers, 13 received minor injuries. Nine of the 30 GIGN operatives received injuries; of them, one received serious wounds. Three crew members received injuries. Delhemme was hit by bullets in his right elbow and thigh. Bossuat received minor injuries; the dead bodies of two hijackers had shielded Delhemme and Bossuat from gunfire. Borderie, the most seriously injured, fractured his elbow and thigh from the 5-metre (16 ft) drop. Favier said that he determined that the operation was a success since none of the GIGN received fatal injuries. French Prime Minister Édouard Balladur said that the events unfolded "exceptionally well".

Aftermath
As a result of the damage to the aircraft, the A300 was written off and later scrapped at the airport in September 1995. Several hours after the incident ended, the Armed Islamic Group, which had claimed responsibility for the event, killed four Roman Catholic priests in retaliation in Tizi-Ouzou, Algeria. Three of the priests were French, while one was Belgian.

The crew of the A300 and the GIGN forces received high national honours. Charles Pasqua, then the Minister of the Interior, said that throughout the ordeal the crew "rose to the occasion". Bernard Delhemme returned to flying and worked for Air France for nine years before retiring. Flight attendant Claude Burgniard said that she "kept seeing the faces" of the three passengers who had been executed; when she received her medal she realised that she had helped save 173 people; this allowed her to mourn and get over the incident. Burgniard said that she does not wear the medal, but that she felt like she deserved it. Burgniard, who also received a message of thanks from the airline, never again worked for Air France. Flight attendant Christophe Morin stopped working for Air France and began to work for a charitable organisation.

A former militant group leader admitted that the men had planned to detonate the aircraft over the Eiffel Tower. The militant group never again attempted this plot. Pasqua said that if the militants crashed an aircraft on the Eiffel Tower or the Élysée Palace, they would have committed what they would believe to be "an extraordinary feat."

Flights between Algiers and Paris are now Flights 1355, 1451, 1555, 1755, and 1855 (operating to Charles de Gaulle instead of Orly). Flight number 8969 is now a codeshare flight number for Delta Air Lines flight number 1584 between Greater Rochester International Airport and Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

Passengers and crew
Most of the passengers were Algerians; 138 of the passengers were Algerian citizens. A significant number of the passengers were French people leaving Algeria. Captain Bernard Delhemme said that the hijackers, who had extensively planned the operation, did not anticipate that most of the passengers would be Algerians. The hijackers recited Quran verses and tried to reassure the Algerian passengers. Witness accounts said that they terrorised non-Algerians.

Hijackers
25-year-old Abdul Abdullah Yahia, also known as "The Emir", was a petty thief and greengrocer from the Bab El Oued neighbourhood of Algiers. By the time of the hijacking, he was notorious for beheading Algerian policemen. The negotiators said that Yahia spoke "approximate" French and always ended his sentences in "Insha'Allah" ("God willing"). Several passengers said all but one of the hijackers had no beards and closely cropped hair. A woman said that the men "were polite and correct" and that they "had the determined air of cold-blooded killers". Another passenger said the hijackers "seemed excited, very euphoric" and that they told the occupants that they would teach the French and the world a lesson and show what they were capable of doing.

As the hijacking progressed, the passengers recognised the personalities of the hijackers. Claude Burgniard, a flight attendant, recalled that the crew and passengers gave nicknames to the hijackers "to make things simpler". Yahia, the leader, had given his name, so the passengers called him by that name. According to Burgniard, Lotfi had a "peculiar" character, "was always on a knife edge", and "the most fanatic" and "the most fundamentalist" of the hijackers. Therefore, he received the nickname "Madman" from the passengers. According to Burgniard, Lotfi was the hijacker who insisted that the passengers follow Islamic law. Lotfi found women having their heads uncovered "intolerable", making him very angry. One hijacker did not give his name to the passengers, so they called him "Bill". Burgniard stated that Bill was "a little bit simple" and "more of a goatherd than a terrorist." She said his role as a hijacker was "an error in casting". Burgniard remembered that the occupants wondered why Bill was there and that they saw Bill appearing as if he wondered why he was there, as well. The hijacker nicknamed "The Killer" shot the hostages whom the hijackers had targeted.

In popular culture

 * The 2011 French film L'Assaut was made with the collaboration and advice of the GIGN.
 * Flight attendant Christophe Morin and passenger Zahida Kakachi co-authored the book Le vol Alger-Marseille: Journal d'otages, recalling the events of the attack and how it had affected their lives.
 * The events of Flight 8969 were featured in "The Killing Machine", a Season 2 (2004) episode of the Canadian TV series Mayday (called Air Emergency and Air Disasters in the U.S. and Air Crash Investigation in the UK and elsewhere around the world). The dramatisation was broadcast with the title "Hijacked" in the United Kingdom, Australia and Asia; and in the United States as "Hijack Rescue". The episode uses a mix of re-enactments and actual footage. Flight 8969 captain Bernard Delhemme and Colonel Denis Favier, then a major who was head of the GIGN counter-terrorist unit assigned to the flight, gave their first television interviews for Mayday, appearing in silhouette, as both felt under threat after the events and that members of the public believed that the militants were offering a reward for Favier's assassination. Elie Gemael, a Canadian actor of Jewish and Lebanese heritage, played lead hijacker Abdul Yahia.
 * The incident was also featured in an episode of the Zero Hour television series called "Shoot-Out in Marseille". Using a mix of real footage and reenactment, it suggests that two of the terrorists were killed by the GIGN snipers. Gemael reprises his role as Yahia for this dramatization.
 * A one-hour documentary, episode 3 of the UK BBC Two television series The Age of Terror, was transmitted on 29 April 2008. This showed an in-depth reconstruction of the hijacking, and included interviews with passengers, crew, GIGN commando and government official eyewitnesses, including the co-pilot who jumped out of the cockpit window. It was stated explicitly that a mole within the GIA terrorists informed the French authorities that the intention was to use the aircraft as a missile to attack Paris.

title: Air France Flight 8969


text:
Talk:Air France Flight 8969

Casualties
In the summary of this page, it is stated that there were "7 casualties, including the hijackers". The page also enumerates three civilian casualties; an Algerian Policeman, a Vietnamese diplomat, and an employee of the French embassy. Towards the end of this article is written: "After nearly forty hours of intense negotiations and the loss of three more lives", which would lead me to believe that at this point, no fewer than 6 civilians had been killed. Either the count is incorrect or "and the loss of three more lives" should be changed. Ph0t0phobic 19:53, 26 May 2007 (UTC) Where do the GIGN trained on a airbus aircraft before the assault? "There is no airport in Neuilly" well, you are maybe right but there are a lot of "Neuilly" in France and it maybe was on a military airfield, i haven't found yet where the training occured. Sensi.fr --- Maybe needs a bit of a tidy up as its very sensationalised....
 * During the entire incident only 3 civilians died. WhisperToMe (talk) 17:50, 3 May 2009 (UTC)
 * They trained on the way to Majorca - they were flown there to be close to Algeria, but then flew to Marseille. They were being carried by an A300. WhisperToMe (talk) 17:50, 3 May 2009 (UTC)

FireBadger

Which part? Sensi.fr ---

The GIA is linked to Bin Ladin? => perhaps; in any case, the GIA was striving for the establishment of an islamic state in Algeria ==> The GIA is older than Bin Laden

It is the first time that I've ever seen mention of US Marines being involved in this hostage crisis. Is there any confirmation? David.Monniaux 22:20, 14 Sep 2003 (UTC)

First time for me too. --172.196.20.2 13:50, 12 Aug 2004 (UTC)

what happened to the hijackers? Andy Mabbett 11:28, 19 Dec 2003 (UTC) ==> The were killed by the GIGN

They died. WhisperToMe 03:33, 23 Jan 2004 (UTC)

Demands
What were the terrorists demands? ozoneliar 17 Jul 2006 (UTC)

 * They wanted the plane to fly to France, where they had intended to blow it up over the Eiffel Tower. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 05:45, 1 August 2014 (UTC)

Vandalized
This page was vandalized by someone who didn't logged in. I reveresed it. In particular, unless someone proves that the US gouvernment intervened in this affair, I see no point to mention it.

National Geographic Channel video on AF8969
I am desperately trying to get hold of a good VHS (DVD :-) ) copy of this show......oakleybr@iafrica.com  Brad`198.54.202.226 19:16, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

Gibberish
Someone vandalized the page. Or just had a brain explosion. Either way, I've just deleted the following gibberish. It had nothing to do with the article.

"During this hijacking,the four armed Algerian terrorists where simply trained by Ramzi Yousef and Abdul Murad.The thought of flying hijacked planes into landmarks was designed by Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda.This hijacking was a failure,but 9/11 was a result in Radical Islam and possibly future hijackings."

If it's not gibberish then would someone explain the relevence?

Discrepency with Discovery Channel show
The article states that "The negotiation team decided to divert the flight to Marseille International Airport, some five hundred miles south of Paris. Air traffic controllers in the tower secretly communicated to the crew of Flight 8969 to tell the hijackers that they didn't have enough fuel to make it all the way to Paris."

However, in a recent Discovery Channel episode of the show "Mayday", titled "Killing Machines", it is stated that the plane really didn't have enough fuel to make it to Paris because the plane's APU (Auxiliary Power Unit) had been left on. The APU is a small jet engine in the tail that primarily provides electrical power for the plane, and it is said to consume 4 tons of fuel per day. They also didn't mention anything about secret communications about pretending about not having enough fuel.

Guspaz 01:57, 30 December 2006 (UTC)

Both sources are correct. In the Discovery Channel episode the captain tells the hijackers that the APU has used so much fuel that they cannot make it to Paris. He did so because he was told to do so. I am a pilot, and I know that the APU of an A300 does not use 4 tons of fuel per day. Also, the plane had extra fuel on board because every flight is loaded with more fuel than necessary, in case of an emergency that requires the plane to stay in the air for an extended period. Obviously the pilot exaggerated the figure and made the situation seem worse than it was to make sure they would land. The truth of the matter is that they could have made it to Paris.

You are a pilot? If so than you must not pilot a heavy. The APU on an A300 does indeed use up to 4 tons of fuel to run for 24 hours. In fact, depending on the load, it can exceed 5 tons. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.170.101.237 (talk) 05:29, 18 October 2007 (UTC)

Intelligence reports suggested ...
I wrote: "Intelligence reports suggested that the hijackers intended to fly the plane into the Eiffel Tower in Paris, or blow it up over the city; a maximum fuel load would make the Airbus into a flying bomb." I can't give a printed or web reference for this (maybe somebody can?). It was stated in a programme on the UK BBC2 television channel which included interviews with many surviving crew, passenger, gendarme, and political eyewitnesses at 21:00 on 29 April 2008 that a mole in the GIA terrorist group informed the French authorities of the intentions of the hijackers. I think the programme can be viewed on the BBC website for 1 week after transmission. Pol098 (talk) 22:53, 29 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Unlike BBC radio BBC television is only accessible from within the UK. Here's the page for the relevant episode which runs through the salient points including the Eiffel Tower as target. And there was I thinking 'the world changed' on 9/11.  Hmmm... Hakluyt bean (talk) 22:39, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

BBC documentaries accessible
I added some inline cites using Peter Taylor's Age of Terror documentary that I had just heard transmitted on the BBC World Service. It seems both the radio programme and the television episode are accessible from outside the United Kingdom. The 23 minute radio programme can be downloaded as an MP3 podcast from here and the 57 minute television broadcast is viewable via Real Player from here (click on the Episode three link). I added some clarifyme tags to places in the article where I found no source in the radio transmission nor on the web, but I have not yet watched the TV programme. It seems a good idea, when using inline cites, to include the position in a radio or television broadcast in actual minutes and seconds. I have done this in html comments. 84user (talk) 17:28, 14 February 2009 (UTC)

Number confusion
The various figures mentioned in the article probably confuse readers; they certainly do me. It seems TIME magazine contradicts both the BBC radio broadcast and the aviation-safety network (or I'm misreading TIME). I am adding an explanatory footnote. Synthesis from Peter Taylor: 154 passengers plus 12 crew equals 166 total remaining alive on the aeroplane at the end. 166 plus the 4 now dead hijackers equals 170 occupants stated by the aviation safety network.
 * ASN has: Fatalities: 7 / Occupants: 170 (meaning at end 163 alive)
 * Taylor says: "Most of the 220 passengers and 12 crew were settling into their seats ... around 11 am four armed men appeared in the cabin"
 * Taylor describes the first two killings (so 218 passengers left)
 * Taylor says: "At 2:30 pm 63 Algerian passengers ... set free" (so 155 passengers left)
 * Taylor describes the third killing (so 154 passengers left)

Synthesis from TIME: 161 passengers plus 12 crew equals 173 total remaining alive on the aeroplane at the end. Add the 63 freed earlier plus the three shot equals 239 total (227 initial passengers plus 12 crew). 173 plus 4 hijackers equals the 177 in the TIME's scenario, so it is self-consistent.
 * TIME states at the end: "French gendarmerie stormed the Air France jetliner" ... "killing the four hijackers in a brisk firefight and freeing the plane's 173 passengers and crew."
 * TIME poses a scenario over Paris: "177 people"
 * TIME has at start: "227 passengers"
 * 2 shot: "Algerian policeman" and a "commercial attache at the Vietnamese embassy" (so 225 passengers left)
 * "by the end of Saturday had freed 63" (so 162 passengers left)
 * 1 shot: "a cook" (so 161 passengers left)

84user (talk) 09:44, 1 June 2009 (UTC)

Nationalities of Passengers
There is a chart on the page breaking down the different nationalities of the passengers on board. Any idea where this information came from? No citation... I work for a news agency and am looking to confirm the nationalities of the passengers during this flight. 64.210.199.233 (talk) 21:25, 2 February 2012 (UTC)Matt

"See what you get when you play tough"
This quote, under "25 December" subheading, comes from the Mayday episode which is a reenactment; this is a quote of the character, which is most likely a translation of the Captain's actual words (thus, not an exact quote.) Does anyone know if he spoke this in English or what his French words were? (+ various other quotes) Td522285 (talk) 02:49, 12 April 2022 (UTC)

When did the French find out the intention of the hijackers?
It is stated a former leader of the Muslim group said the intention was to detonate the plane over the Eiffel Tower. When did they find that out? After 9/11, not relevant. Before 9/11, did they share that info with us? If they shared the info before 9/11, why didn’t our leaders understand the seriousness of this? 68.199.210.54 (talk) 22:41, 5 February 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Air France Flight 8969