Basildon's top policeman has spoken for the first time of the honour of being chosen to head the Stansted hijack negotiations.

Basildon divisional commander Supt Denis Sheppard said he had never experienced anything as major in all his life.

It was his job to co-ordinating the dozens of agencies and police officers to bring the incident to what was a peaceful end last week.

The four-day hijack, the longest ever in Britain, was headed up by the Chief Constable of Essex who worked from police headquarters.

The tense operation was publically fronted at Stanstead by Essex Police Assistant Chief Constable, Joe Edwards - but really it was Mr Sheppard and one of his senior detectives who were busy working behind the scenes to bring the incident to a safe conclusion.

Mr Sheppard was second in command instructing officers from the Metropolitan and Hertfordshire forces as well as his own Essex officers who were drafted in.

From early in the morning until late at night the decisions he made were the ones to either make or break the hijack situation.

He worked with a senior detective from the Basildon division who was in charge of the negotiations.

Mr Sheppard, who had before worked only more minor roles in similar incidents, said yesterday: "Receiving a call in the early hours of the Monday morning - my birthday - was a bit of a shock!

"I was in charge of co-ordinating the agencies at the scene.

"It was excellent to see so many different agencies, from the airport authorities to the army and police, government, and so on, working together so effectively to bring the situation to a successful conclusion.

"I have been involved in these things before but never in a central role.

"I was one of the commanders at the Brightlingsea animal protest and played a minor role in a hijacking in the 1970s. I have never experienced anything like this in all my life.

"I still have no idea why I was chosen to head up the incident." Major decisions were left down to him to weigh up and he is pleased with its results.

He said: "The whole incident was on a massive scale. It was made particularly complex because of the length of time it took to bring to a peaceful end.

"The long hours and high pressure involved was tiring, but also interesting, challenging and exciting. It was very stressful but one felt a massive level of responsibility."

Dozens of other police officers from across the division were called to Stansted to help out with the secret negotiation work.

Mr Sheppard has praised his staff both dealing with the airport incident and holding the fort back in Basildon.

He said: "I think it is important for people to know although we are police officers in Basildon, we also have roles to fulfil in Essex as a whole. This was one of those.

"The staff left in Basildon were put under pressure to provide a service for Basildon.

"They all deserve congratulations for their efforts in keeping a service going here and performing key roles at the airport."

Hijack - armed police keep a close eye on the plane

(Left) Top negotiator - Supt Denis Sheppard

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.