Page 192 - Encyclopedia Of Terrorism

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Hijacking———169

number of successful hijackings declined. According hijackers demanded to fly to Miami. Reportedly, after
to press reports, between 1973 and 1979, only one in they gave up the United States agreed to expedite their
36 hijacking attempts was successful. immigration applications.
To further curtail hijacking attempts, the United In 1981, three Pakistani hijackers, said to be backed
States put sky marshals on select flights, a program by Soviet Afghanistan, forced a Pakistan International
that endured through the Johnson and Nixon adminis- Airlines jet to fly to Kabul, where one passenger was
trations. In 1973, the U.S. Federal Aviation Adminis- killed. After the plane flew on to Damascus, the Pakis-
tration instituted systematic searches of passengers and tani government agreed to free more than 50 political
their bags. Many other countries, mostly in Europe, prisoners and the hostages were released.
made similar changes to airport procedures. At a 1978 A tragic 16-day hijacking ordeal began on June
Group of Seven summit meeting, the United States, 14, 1985 when two Lebanese Shiite Muslim terror-
West Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada, and Great Britain ists, later tied to the Hezbollah organization, hijacked
signed a pledge to impose sanctions on countries that TWA Flight 847 bound to Rome from Athens. The
give sanctuary to hijackers. hijackers ordered the pilot to fly first to Algiers, but
However, hijackings continued throughout the the planes low fuel supply led him to land in Beirut,
political turbulence of the 1970s. On June 27, 1976, where the hijackers demanded the release of
Palestinian terrorists hijacked an Air France jetliner hundreds of prisoners held in Israel. One of the gun-
bound from Tel Aviv to Paris and directed it instead to men killed Petty Officer Robert Dean Stethem at
Entebbe, Uganda. Israeli forces carried out a famous close range and dumped his body onto the Beirut tar-
raid to rescue the mostly Israeli hostages, killing the mac. The plane flew back and forth between Algiers
hijackers. and Beirut for several days, until it was finally
Croatian nationalists armed only with Silly Putty grounded in Beirut. The hijackers and their accom-
hijacked an aircraft in September 1976. The hijackers plices kept many of the passengers and crew hostage
displayed what they said were “five gelignite bombs” until June 30, when Israel agreed to release some of
and convinced all aboard TWA Flight 355 from the prisoners.
New York to follow their instructions. The hijackers In November 1985, Palestinians said to be linked to
said they had left a bomb and political tracts inside Abu Nidal captured an EgyptAir plane and forced it
a locker in New York’s Grand Central Station, and fly to Malta. Egyptian commandos stormed the plane
demanded U.S. newspapers publish their call for and 59 people were killed in the shootout.
Croatian independence. Police experts opened the While aerial hijackings are the best known, the
locker and found an actual bomb. The device was capture of a cruise ship in 1985 is also an important
taken to a police range to be disarmed, but exploded moment in hijacking history. On October 7, four
unexpectedly, killing a New York police officer. Palestine Liberation Front terrorists seized the Italian
In 1977, hijackers calling for the release of prisoners cruise liner Achille Lauro when it was traveling
in West Germany commandeered a Lufthansa airliner off Port Said, Egypt. The hijackers held more than
as it left the Spanish island of Majorca for Frankfurt. 400 people aboard hostage for two days, and shot and
The hijackers instead made stops in Rome, Cyprus, killed a wheelchair-bound passenger.
Bahrain, Dubai, and Aden, South Yemen, before land- Hijackings continued to occur around the world
ing in Mogadishu, Somalia. During the ordeal, the during the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s, but at
hijackers killed the plane’s pilot and dumped his body a lower frequency. Many terrorist groups turned
onto the Mogadishu airport runway. The hijack attempt toward the more deadly tactic of destroying planes in
ended when German commandos stormed the plane, flight, as in the tragic 1988 bombing of an American
killing three hijackers and wounding the fourth. airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland.
A revisiting of the Cuban shuttle happened in 1980, On April 5, 1988, Shiite Muslim terrorists hijacked
when, according to press reports, eight U.S. domestic a Kuwait Airways plane flying from Bangkok to
flights were hijacked and rerouted to Havana, Cuba. Mashhad, Iran. The hijackers directed the flight to
A Cuban refugee wanting to return home comman- Cyprus and then Algiers, and demanded that Kuwait
deered each plane. free imprisoned comrades. The terrorists killed two
In August 1980, an overwhelming number of pas- passengers, and released the remaining passengers
sengers, 168, took over a Braniff plane in Peru. The after 16 days.