The World's Craziest Prison Escape. This Isn't a Hollywood Script—It Actually Happened.
- Nov 22, 2025
- 4 min read
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Imagine the most secure prison you can. We're talking 17-ton walls, nets to stop helicopters, armored doors, and snipers on watchtowers. It's a modern fortress. Now, picture the country's most guarded prisoner, Rédoine Faïd. He's a famous criminal with a wild history, but he's so calm and friendly that the guards almost like him. It’s just a quiet Sunday morning. Until, very suddenly, it isn't.
Miles away, a 65-year-old flight instructor has just been hijacked. Men pretending to be students held him at gunpoint and threatened his family. Now, he's being forced to fly their helicopter—a small, vintage model—right to the prison. It doesn't land on the roof. It flies inside a small courtyard, the only spot with no anti-helicopter nets. Masked men in black jump out with assault rifles. They set off smoke grenades, and the entire yard vanishes in thick white smoke. It's total chaos.
This is where the real plan kicks in. The snipers on the towers can't see a thing. The prison guards are unarmed and totally confused. Their emergency calls are put on hold—one person thought it was a prank call! While everyone was panicking, one of the masked men fired up an angle grinder. The shriek of the blade on metal was the signal. This wasn't a guess. They knew exactly which doors to cut, just like they knew exactly which courtyard to land in. A drone had been scouting the prison days before. This was a plan, timed to the second.
To get the "how," you have to understand the "who." Rédoine Faïd, was no ordinary inmate. This was a man who truly believed he was the star of his own action movie. From his earliest days, he wasn't just watching crime thrillers; he was studying them. He and his crew pulled off heists wearing rubber masks of politicians, just like in the movie Point Break. They wore sharp black suits, just like in Reservoir Dogs. His ultimate goal, inspired by the film Heat, was robbing armored trucks. He wasn't just a criminal; he was a director, and the world was his set.
