The gate was in the satellite terminal, with floor to ceiling views across the tarmac to the cross runway, where a tiny Jetstream a/c was stopped. There were armed defenders squad positioned all around the aircraft with many guns trained on the open aircraft door (which is at the rear of this tiny aircraft).
This is the head-on view of the a/c an hour or so later (the car was much further away from the a/c at the time). We were perhaps a hundred metres or so off to the right of the picture.
For a while we had the surreal experience of watching them positioning around the aircraft and manouevring their way closer.
News slowly filtered in by cell phone, amazingly most of it accurate in hindsight. Two pilots had been injured (fortunately not life threatening injuries) by knife attack in flight but managed to bring the aircraft down in one piece without causing injury. A bomb threat had been made. The passenger wanted to be flown to Australia (that isn't going to happen in that wee plane).
The flight was from Blenheim (one I've flown myself before).
For those unfamiliar with Jetstream32 aircraft, there is no cockpit door and the middle front seat is directly behind where the door would be, if there was one. It has been reported the attacker was seated in the front window seat. Prop flights in NZ do not have xray or WTMD screening. This particular flight left from a small regional airport.
Back to the story.
Fire engines held back close to the terminal, well away from the aircraft. They were positioned to protect some guys on the ground. Later ambulances parked up by the hangars, a long distance from the aircraft but a short drive across the taxiway.
It felt bizarre. If we hadn't been getting such consistent stories it might have seemed like an exercise. But no, this was the real thing. New Zealand had never had an in-flight hijacking attempt before and here I was getting a close up look at the aftermath (and yes some FTers have kindly pointed out that given the amount of travel I do the odds are high I would be on the spot).
Almost an hour later we were evacuated from the satellite terminal, and the main terminal airside portion was also evacuated. A few minutes after that landside was also cleared and all thousands of staff and travellers decamped to the carpark and grass outside (lucky it was a nice day).