 |    |
|
|
You are here: Articles > Aviation articles > This is a hijack!
|
Aviation articles |
Movie reviews |
Flight stories | ||||
Article overview Written two years before the multiple terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, this is a review of the major horror stories in the skies. Commercial aircraft suddenly controlled by terrorists, and innocent passengers becoming brutalized hostages... Hijack! Originally published in February 1999. Re-edited in January 2004. |
 magine it's the year 1986. You're the Captain of a Boeing 707-200 of American Travelways Airlines (ATW). The plane just took off from Athens and is on its way to Rome and New York. As you turn on the autopilot, and activate the "Altitude Hold", you do some small talk with your First Officer. Jim, the flight engineer, suddenly interrupts, saying he hears noise and people screaming back in the cabin. You all start whispering and suddenly, someone knocks at the door. It's Ingrid, the chief flight attendant.
"Jim, it's me. Open...". The First Officer tells you to keep the door shut, it's a hijack. He is about to tune the transponder to 7500 (the international code for a hijack) but you tell him not to do so yet, because we're not sure. Ingrid knocks again. "Open, Jim!". Jim asks her: "Is everything okay?"... She replies: "Everything is all right, open please". What you don't know is that she is threatened with a gun by a terrorist. An instant later, she yells "JIM, YOU'VE GOT TO OPEN!". He quickly opens the door, but accidently hits the terrorist, who enters the flight desk, pinless grenade in hand. After the flight engineer puts the pin back into the grenade, the hijacker introduces himself and says he is from some revolutionary organization in the New World. With his broken English, he orders you to fly to Beirut, Lebanon, but not to notify the ground controls. With a lot of discretion, you change the code of your transponder, from 2143 to 7500. The hijacker yells: "What you doing, take the hand away!". You reply: "That's normal operating procedure"... 
Quite scary, huh? Fortunately, for you, this little scenario is fictional! The whole story comes straight from the movie The Delta Force . The movie itself, however, was obviously inspired by a true story: the hijack of TWA flight 847. Just like air crashes, hijacks are a sad part of aviation. And just like air crashes, they put everyone aboard the aircraft in sudden danger.
 It all started in the 1930sWhen did the first aircraft hijack occur? The debate is still on. Some say it happened on February 21, 1931. Byron Rickards was flying a Ford Tri-motor from Lima to Arequipa, in Peru. When he landed, he was surrounded by soldiers and was told he had just become the prisoner of a revolutionary organisation. He was released on March 2. And believe it or not, 30 years later, he got hijacked again! This time, he was flying a Continental Airlines Boeing 707 and forced by a father-and-son duo to fly to Cuba, and offer the airliner to ruler Fidel Castro as a "present". One thing is for sure: the first commercial airliner hijack case occured in the summer of 1948. A Catalina seaplane, operated by Cathay Pacific and christened Miss Macao, departed Macao and was bound to Hong Kong. A few minutes after take-off, three armed men entered the cockpit, and one of them requested from the pilot to take over the controls. The pilot immediately refused, and was shot. His wounded body fell on the control stick and the seaplane dove into the sea. There was only one survivor among the 27 occupants: it was the terrorists' leader. The date is uncertain: Aviation Safety Network says July 16 (which this website chose to believe), however Wikipedia says June 16.
Later in the 1940s and the early 1950s, the hijack attempts were rare and came mostly from desperate people fleeing from Communist countries to the "Free World" of the West. But times changed, and hijacks soon became a matter of politics. The terrorists demand liberation of their imprisoned "brothers". Negotiation follows, the prisoners are freed, and so are the hostages. Below are two well-known examples. "Revolution Airport"
In September 1970, also known as "Black September", the world witnessed the most impressive serial hijacks in the world. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) hijacked four aircraft, to request the liberation of Palestinian prisioners in Switzerland and West Germany. It all started on September 6, as a TWA Boeing 707, bound for New York, was hijacked after take-off from Frankfurt. Two terrorists forced the pilot to turn South, towards the Mediterranean Sea. Later that day, a Swissair Douglas DC-8, on departure from Zürich, was hijacked by two men and a woman. The two aircraft landed in Dawson's Field, a former RAF base in Zarga, Jordan. The landing strip was renamed "Revolution Airport" for the occasion. Another aircraft, a Pan Am Boeing 747-100, was hijacked by two Palestinians and landed in Beirut for refueling. The hijackers then realized the 747 is too big to land on Dawson's Field's short runway. Therefore, the aircraft was rerouted to Cairo, where it was destroyed.
The last aircraft, an El Al Boeing 707, was rather part of an ATTEMPT. Leila Khaled (Palestinian guerrillera, hijacked a TWA airliner in 1969) and Patrick Arguello (United States national of Nicaraguan descent), attempted to take over the Israeli aircraft on departure from Amsterdam with hand grenades and a pistol. Right at the beginning of the hijack attempt, Arguello was shot by a security officer onboard. The aircraft landed in London's Heathrow Airport and Khaled was handed over to the British authorities. In retaliation to this situation, the PFLP hijacked a British aircraft, a BOAC Vickers VC-10 on September 9.
The PFLP sent an ultimatum to United Kingdom, West Germany and Switzerland to release the Palestinian prisoners. In the meantime, the 127 women and children from the Swissair and TWA aircraft, plus 114 passengers from the BOAC plane, were held hostage in hotels in Amman while the PFLP retains their passports. On the sixth day of the crisis, the PFLP got a reply in extremis that the prisoners were released, but in despite of that, the passengers still remaining on the aircraft were evacuated to Amman and the 3 aircraft were blown up. No passengers were killed. The only victims were four multi-million dollar commercial airliners blown-up in the desert (three in Jordan, one in Egypt). Flight 847 is hijacked
June 14, 1985 marked the beginning of a very frightening hijack that will prove to be extremely long-lasting. It's Trans World Airlines (TWA) flight 847, a Boeing 727-200. It had just completed a Cairo-Athens flight without any problems, and was on its way to the next stop, Rome. The flight crew was directed by the late Captain John Testrake and onboard were 145 passengers, mostly United States nationals. 10 minutes after departure from Athens, two shiit Lebanese terrorists left their seats, armed with automatic guns and hand grenades. (Their leader was to be part of the operation, but was arrested by Greek authorities in Athens Airport as he tried to catch the flight.) They ordered Testrake to change course to Beirut. Clever enough though, the Captain sent a discrete radio message announcing a hijack. At first, the airport authorities refused to grant landing clearance to flight 847, but Testrake, threatened by one of the terrorists, was forced to insist, and finally clearance was given. Christian militia blocked the runway at first, but in retaliation, the shiit Amal group moved in.
Once on the ground, the two terrorists asked for refueling, but the Lebanese authorities declined the request. After some passengers were brutalized, the aircraft was refueled, and 17 women and 2 children were released. The next stop was Algiers, where more women and children were released. When the aircraft was about to be refueled, a fight onboard the aircraft started and a Navy diver, Robert Stethem, already heavily wounded, was shot. (In his memory, a US Navy Warship was named after him). Half an hour later, at least 10 Amal militiamen joined the two terrorists. Their demand: the release of hundreds of militiamen held in Southern Lebanon, and a ban on sales of Arab petrol to the United States. After another round-trip from Algiers to Beirut, the terrorists freed 49 passengers and 5 flight attendants, including Purser Uli Derickson. She was credited for saving the lives of all but one passenger with her calm attitude, her knowledge of German which helped her communicate with one of the hijackers... and her Shell credit card which paid for US$6,000 worth of jet fuel during a stopover in Algiers.
The aircraft left for Beirut again, and on board, there only remained hostages from the United States, mostly men. Six of them, bearing Jewish-sounding names, were held at the airport for the night. The rest of the passengers were scattered around Southern Beirut. For the following 14 days, the passengers were held hostage in acceptable conditions in the city, while Testrake and his flight crew remained inside the 727. Captain Testrake, just like Derickson, was considered as a hero in this hijack, as he remained calm during the entire crisis, especially during the press conference when he was suddenly threatened with a gun by one of the terrorist. This image was broadcast worldwide. After many negociations which determined the fate of the shiit militiamen held in Israel, and which ended in the release of a few of the 700 prisoners requested, all hostages were released. The made-for-TV movie The Flight portrays the hijack as seen by Derickson, played by Lindsay Wagner. "Operation Thunderbolt"
There were also cases when negociation isn't useful or acceptable, and the military force must strike. Let's start with a succesful story. On June 27, 1976, Air France flight 139, an Airbus A300B2 with 258 passengers and crew, departed Athens Airport, the intermediate stop of a flight from Tel Aviv to Paris. Shortly after take-off, a group of terrorists (from the PFLP and Baader-Meinhof) forced the flight crew to change course towards the South. Their first stop was believed to be Benghazi, Libya, where one pregnant passenger was released. The aircraft then continued to Entebbe, in Uganda, where the late Idi Amin Dada was the ruler. Their demand: the release of 53 prisoners, something that is totally against the Israeli foreign policy which bans negotiation with terrorists.
In Entebbe, it was clear that the hijackers were singling out the Israeli or the Jewish: they are held in a separate lounge at the airport terminal. By July 3, all but the Israeli or Jewish hostages are released. It is time for a daring rescue mission called "Operation Thunderbolt", from Israel. On July 3, a commanding Boeing 707 and three C-130s headed for Entebbe while a flying hospital 707 landed at Nairobi. The next day, the three C-130s landed shortly after midnight. One of them unloaded a black Mercedes Benz sedan, identical to Idi Amin's, escorted by Land Rovers. The Ugandese got closer, preparing to welcome their president, but were shot instead by the commandos, dressed as members of the PFLP. They quickly got inside and yelled: "We're Israelis, get down!". Three hostages who were late on complying with this sudden order were killed during the shooting. Another attack unity neutralized the radio at the control tower, while another team destroyed eleven MiG Soviet fighter aircraft to prevent any following air chase. The hostages were directed to the C-130s, and the aircraft took off. Total casualties: 28, including 4 hijackers and 20 Ugandese, and the head of the mission Yonatan Netanyahu (brother of former Israel PM Benyamin). 100 were also injured. The three C-130s landed at Nairobi for refueling, where the injured passengers were transfered to the flying hospital. The aircraft continued to Tel Aviv where the commandos were welcomed as heroes. Three made-for-TV movies were based on this rescue mission: Raid on Entebbe and Victory at Entebbe by studios in the United States, and Operation Thunderbolt, an Israeli production.
On December 24, 1994, another Air France Airbus A300, flight AF8969 from Algiers to Paris, was hijacked. During the crisis, three hostages were killed. Once again, the hostages were released thanks to an intervention by counter-terrorism forces on the ground.
Deadly riot in Malta
We couldn't say the following operation was a success. Let's face it: it was a total fiasco. On November 24, 1985, EgyptAir flight 648, a Boeing 737-200 carrying 98 passengers and crew, left Athens, bound for Cairo. After reaching cruising altitude, three well-dressed men stood up, got their guns out and ordered the passengers to freeze. One of them reached the cockpit and forced Captain Hani Galal to head for Malta. The terrorists collected all passports and sorted passengers by nationality. Afterwards, a General from the Egyptian Air Force shot one terrorist to death. The two others injured a security agent and many passengers.
The Maltese authorities refused to grand landing clearance to the 737 and turned off the runway lights. The aircraft was low on fuel and Captain Galal made a very elaborate landing, guided only by the position lights of another aircraft approaching the airport at the same time. On November 29, the Maltese Prime Minister, Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici, is in charge of negotiations. He refused to let the aircraft be refueled until hostages were released. 13 were (11 female passengers and 2 flight attendants), but the aircraft still wasn't refuled. After 3 radio calls for refueling without any answer, the terrorists announced they'd kill one passenger every 10 minutes until the plane was refueled. The first victim was a young Israeli woman. The bullet smeared her head. She was able to crawl to the tarmac using the airstairs. Ten minutes later, another Israeli woman is shot, along with a United States female passenger. In the meantime, a special Egyptian unit had arrived in Malta and was ready to raid the grounded aircraft. At 8:30PM local time, the aircraft was shaken by explosions from the Egyptian forces, who made holes on the roof and forced the overwing emergency exits open. The commando members got inside and threw smoke grenades. One of the passengers interviewed later by the press claims the Egyptians were shooting in the blind, killing more passengers than terrorists, whether on the aircraft or outside. Many of the hostages who fled the bloodbath aboard the 737 were killed by the Force 777 snipers. It is true that the hijackers weren't very organized, and the commando team from Force 777 was even less organized. The total death toll was 57, mostly passengers. The investigation that followed has cleverly avoided from telling who was killed by the "rescuers". For more information on this "botched rescue", you're invited to consult this website about Task Force 777 .
Do you have any questions? Keep reading! An FAQ on air terrorism follows this article. | ||||
 |
|
|
| ||
 |
 Hijack words: by Sergio Ortega. All aircraft pictures: by Sergio Ortega, captured and modified from Microsoft Flight Simulator 2000. © 1998-2008, airodyssey.net. All rights reserved. Disclaimer, trademarks, privacy policy. | ||||
