The passengers boarding the night flight
from Bangkok to Kuwait had no inkling of what lay ahead. Normally, the only
thing to worry about would be whether or not the breakfast is going to be
palatable. But this flight was to be different. Within hours the hapless
passengers would be embarking on the longest hijacking in history, during
which they would be subjected to the unique form of hell that is long confinement
in an airliner.
The inside of a large jet is a peculiar
environment at the best of times. Man made, the air-conditioned and artificially
lit cigar tube is usually packed to the brim with humanity. It is not the
most comfortable way to travel, no matter what airline advertising may claim,
but the advantage of being able to cross the globe in a day makes the discomfort
worth it.
Because passengers are on a plane for a
few hours at the most, airliners do not have to be flying hotels. Enough
precooked food is carried for the two or three meals of a long stage. The
toilet and refreshment facilities are the minimum neccessary for the passengers'
comfort and convenience while in flight. Should it be neccessary to remain
in the aircraft for a longer time, then refuelling and resupply becomes
essential. But when it comes to a hijack In September 1970, the Popular Front
for the Liberation of Palestine staged a series of hijacks in Europe and
the Middle East. American, British and Swiss airliners were forced to land
at a small airstrip controlled by the Palestinians in Jordan. There were
no maintenance facilities at Dawson's Field, renamed 'Revolution Airstrip'
for the occasion, so the planes soon lost power, and with it their
air-conditioning and lighting. Without air-conditioning, an airliner becomes
a narrow, badly ventilated tunnel. If it is then subjected to the full heat
of the Middle Eastern sun, before long, the passengers will think themselves
in hell. Food will be in short supply, and drinking water severely limited.
To compound the misery, toilets designed for six or seven hours of use before
being emptied will soon become overloaded.
As the 1970s passed into the 1980s,
international terrorism became ever more bloody. Governments were less ready
to accede to terrorist demands, and special anti-terrorist units such as
the British SAS and the West German GSG-9 were established. The terrorists
were ready to use violence, as was demonstrated in the attempted hijack of
a Pan American Boeing 747 at Karachi in September 1986. The terrorists, disguised
as airport security men, were foiled in part by the escape of the flight
crew down a rope from the cockpit. One passenger was shot dead almost
immediately. In the cabin, passports were collected, and a 27-year old Briton
was called forward. He was there "in case they needed someone to shoot. I
was at the front for about 13 hours." For much of that time he had to lie
on the floor with a gun to his head. "I think I accepted I was going to die."
After 16 hours the lights and air conditioning failed. The 400 passengers
and cabin crew were herded into the central portion of the plane. The terrorists
were nervous, according to a Pakistani businessman on his way to Dusseldorf.
"There were only four of them, and they weren't very bright. When the lights
went out, they did not know what to do. The leader spoke to them in Arabic,
and they opened fire on us." A 25 year old from Ilford thought "it sounded
like the hijackers were praying before they started firing. The girl sitting
next to me was terrified. She got hit."
Security moves in once the sound of firing
came from the plane the Pakistani security forces moved in. The hijackers
were killed or captured, but not before at least 17 hostages lost their lives
and 65 were injured. The hijacking of Kuwait's flight KU422 in April 1988
brought a very different type of terrorist to the fore. Honed in the bloodbath
that is the Lebanon, the Iranian backed 'Hizbollah' fanatics were well organised
and highly trained. They were also ruthless, showing no compunction in shooting
selected hostages in cold blood.They knew a great deal about the psychology
of such situations, keeping the passengers totally disoriented. Nobody knew
who they were: the terrorists were careful to speak classical Arabic with
no regional accent. They were hooded, and occasionally swapped clothes to
make identification difficult. Male passengers were forced to sit for long
periods with their hands bound and held above their heads. The terrorists
ensured that the ground authorities provided enough fuel to power the aircraft's
systems. One ploy was to turn all the cabin lights on while switching the
air conditioning off, allowing the cabin temperature to rise to a very
uncomfortable level. Lights would be lowered after a period, the air conditioning
switched on and passengers would be allowed to use the plane's toilets on
request. At other times, passengers would be confined to their seats even
to the point of fouling themselves. Another ploy was to cut the cabin lights
completely, one or more terrorists patrolling the aisles with a high powered
torch. Passengers picked out in the dark became certain that they would be
taken out and killed. There is no doubt that the hijackers of flight KU 422
would have blown up the aircraft, the hostages and themselves if neccessary.
To a passenger in such a situation, there is little to be done other than
hope for a peaceful ending. There is always the possibility of
rescue. |
| Friday, 14
June 1985
Trans World
Airlines Flight 847 leaves Athens after some delay, bound for Rome. At the
controls is Captain John Testrake, a veteran pilot. With him on the flight
deck are a second pilot and a flight engineer. None of these three have met
before the previous evening. In the cabin are five crew members and 145
passengers, most of them American. Ten minutes out of Athens, two Lebanese
Shi'ites, Ahmed Gayala and All Younes, both in their early twenties, get
up from their seats in the rear and move rapidly towards the cockpit. Both
are armed with grenades, and one has a pistol.
 For the flight attendants, the first job is to keep the passengers
from panicking. Some are slow to obey. "If you don't get down," snaps one
attendant, "he's going to blow your head off, and mine too!" The hijackers
order the plane turned around to head for Beirut. Captain Testrake manages
to get a coded radio message out to his company office while complying with
their instructions. Beirut Tower refuses permission for Flight 847 to land
but Testrake, a guerrilla with a primed hand grenade at his back, insists.
On the ground, Christian Druse militiamen
try to block the runway, while rival Shi'lte Amal fighters try to keep it
clear. There is a brief firefight. The Amal militia win, and Flight 847 lands.
The hijackers' first demand is for the fuel tanks to be replenished. The
authorities refuse, insisting that the women and children on board be released.
The hijackers start to assault the passengers. Eventually the fuel is supplied,
and 17 women and two children are allowed off the aircraft.
After refuelling, Testrake is forced to
take off. The aircraft makes what is to be the first of four flights between
Beirut and Algiers, at the other end of the Mediterranean. At Algiers yet
more fuel is brought, though this time there is a bizarre twist - the fuel
company won't supply it without payment. Eventually the aircraft's purser
hands over her domestic oil company credit card, and is billed for 6,000
gallons at $1 per gallon. More women and children are allowed off the plane.
"If you want your life, get off quickly!" one was told. The Boeing 727 then
takes off again and heads par back the way it had come, reaching Beirut at
2am the next morning.
Saturday
15 June
Once again, rival militias fight
for control of Beirut Airport. Testrake has just six minutes' fuel left when
he was finally allowed to land. Following a shouted argument; to whether
the aircraft will be refuelled again, an
American Navy diver is shot in
the head at point blank range. His body is thrown out onto the tarmac. The
aircraft is taxied to the terminal and the fuel delivered. Within half an
hour, at least ten more Amal militiami join the two hijackers.
The hijackers' demands have now
become crystalised - the release of hundreds of Shia militiamen captured
by the Israelis in Southern Lebanon, an end to Arab oil sales to the West,
the withdrawal of Arab money from Western banks and the release of Shi'ite
extremists imprisoned in Kuwait. This last, a repeat of the demand made in
Teheran the previous year by the hijackers of a Kuwaiti Airbus, is to be
repeated yet again in 1988.
 Refuelled and reinforced, the hijackers now return to Algiers for
the second time. One of their number has been left behind in Athens - he
was a victim of overbooking, and had then been arrested when he was found
to be carrying two forged Moroccan passports- and he is now flown to Algiers
to ]oin them. The hijackers release a further 49 passengers and the five
flight attendants. On one hand, officials are encouraged by this move, but
the experts tell them that it is predictable. "These guys are going by the
book," said one. "The women, children and old people pose the biggest problem
to them. Killing them is not good for public relations, yet taking care of
them tires you out. Now they're down to a useful group. Not too big to manage,
but big enough for what they need."
"Suddenly, one of them turned to where Stethem lay, still unconscious,
on the floor. He jerked him to his feet and pushed him into the open doorway.
A single shot rang out, and Stethem's body fell to the pavement below.
"Phil yelled into the radio, 'They've killed a passenger! They've just
killed a passenger!' I cannot describe how I felt when Stethem was killed.
There was just a heavy, heavy sadness that washed over me. I leaned forward
in my seat and closed my eyes. I didn't pray, because I didn't know what
to say."
Sunday 16 June
The hijacked aircraft returns
to Beirut. The hijackers have been unable to make up their minds where they
want to go - Aden and Teheran are both mentioned and finally agree on the
Lebanon as an interim solution. By now, most of the remaining hostages are
American male adults. Six are taken off the aircraft soon after touchdown
at Beirut; they all either carry military identity papers or have Jewish-sounding
names - and then under cover of darkness, all the remaining passengers are
taken from the aircraft and dispersed around Shi'ite South Beirut.
The gung-ho American press has
been demanding that the aircraft be stormed, and the hostages released -
a demand which Captain Testrake, for one, hopes fervently will be denied.
Delta Force, the U.S. Special Forces group which would run such a rescue
operation, have been moved up to Larnaca in Cyprus, just a short hop from
Beirut. By spreading the hostages out through the city, the hijackers have
forestalled such a move. The US Government replies by reinforcing the Sixth
Fleet, sailing off the Lebanese Coast, with an 1,800-man Marine Assault Unit.
and moving a squadron of F-16 fighter aircraft to bases in Turkey. For the
next 14 days, most of the hostages are reasonably comfortable in South Beirut.
The rapport that often occurs between hostages and their captors makes many
of them see the problems of Islamic factionalism in a new light. Captain
Testrake, first officer Maresca and engineer Zimmerman remain with their
aircraft, while the six hostages taken first off the aircraft are held in
the more secure surroundings of the Sheikh Abdullah barracks in Syrian controlled
Baalbeck, to the north of Beirut.
Monday 1 July
All the hostages are finally released
after prolonged negotiations that settle, finally, on the fate of Shi'iti
fighters imprisoned in Israel. The Israelis release 735 Lebanese prisoners
in a move said to "more or less coincide" with the repatriation of the American
hostages. Both sides make last minute counter-demands, the Americans for
the freedom of seven other kidnapped victims, along with the 39 victims of
the hijacking of Flight 847, the Shi'ites for a variety of small concessions.
Nothing comes of any of these ancillary demands.
|
