Finnair Flight 405 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight between Oulu and

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the capital, primate, and most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of Uusimaa in southern Finland, and has a population of . The city ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

, that was hijacked on September 30, 1978. The

Finnair Finnair ( fi, Finnair Oyj, sv, Finnair Abp) is the flag carrier and largest airline of Finland, with its headquarters in Vantaa on the grounds of Helsinki Airport, its hub. Finnair and its subsidiaries dominate both domestic and international ...

Sud Aviation Caravelle with 44 passengers and 5 crew aboard was hijacked by an unemployed home building contractor. After forcing the pilot to fly to

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, and Helsinki, the hijacker received his ransom demands and released his hostages. He was arrested at his home the following day. The 2013 Finnish drama film '' The Hijack That Went South'', directed by Aleksi Mäkelä, has been made on the basis of the case.

Hijacking

Flight 405 was a regularly scheduled domestic passenger flight operated by

between

Oulu Airport Oulu Airport (; fi, Oulun lentoasema, sv, Uleåborgs flygplats) is located in Oulu, Finland, south-west of the city centre. The airport is the second busiest in Finland after Helsinki-Vantaa Airport, as measured by the number of passengers (ca ...

and

Helsinki Airport Helsinki-Vantaa Airport (; fi, Helsinki-Vantaan lentoasema, sv, Helsingfors-Vanda flygplats), or simply Helsinki Airport, is the main international airport of the city of Helsinki, its surrounding metropolitan area, and the Uusimaa region. ...

. On September 30, 1978, the flight was serviced by a Sud Aviation SE-210 Caravelle. Aarno Lamminparras, a 37-year-old unemployed home building contractor who had recently declared bankruptcy, boarded the aircraft in Oulu. Since Finnish airports did not perform security checks on domestic flights, he was able to carry a loaded

Walther Walther is a masculine given name and a surname. It is a German form of Walter, which is derived from the Old High German ''Walthari'', containing the elements ''wald'' -"power", "brightness" or "forest" and ''hari'' -"warrior". The name was fir ...

7.65mm pistol aboard. At approximately 16:00, while en route to Helsinki, Lamminparras entered the cockpit and held the pilot at gunpoint. The aircraft continued to Helsinki, where 34 of the passengers were released. Lamminparras subsequently forced the pilot to fly back to Oulu where the aircraft circled the airport for several hours before landing to refuel. A US$ 168,000 ransom payment from

was also loaded onto the plane. The plane was then flown back to

, where Lamminparras demanded $38,000 from '' Helsingin Sanomat'', Finland's largest newspaper. The newspaper paid approximately $18,000, and the remaining eleven passengers were freed. The aircraft then flew to

, where it landed at

Schiphol Airport Amsterdam Airport Schiphol , known informally as Schiphol Airport ( nl, Luchthaven Schiphol, ), is the main international airport of the Netherlands. It is located southwest of Amsterdam, in the municipality of Haarlemmermeer in the province ...

and refueled. It then returned to Helsinki and received the remainder of the newspaper's ransom payment. The Caravelle then continued on to Oulu. Lamminparras's final demands included four bottles of

whiskey Whisky or whiskey is a type of distilled alcoholic beverage made from fermented grain mash. Various grains (which may be malted) are used for different varieties, including barley, corn, rye, and wheat. Whisky is typically aged in wooden ...

, a chauffeured

limousine A limousine ( or ), or limo () for short, is a large, chauffeur-driven luxury vehicle with a partition between the driver compartment and the passenger compartment. A very long wheelbase luxury sedan (with more than four doors) driven by a pr ...

, and 24 hours alone at home with his wife. After police agreed to his demands, Lamminparras released the final three hostages, all of them crewmembers. He agreed to surrender peacefully Monday morning. Oulu

police The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and th ...

stormed Lamminparras's house and arrested him on Sunday October 1. A police spokesman indicated that law enforcement officers had tapped the hijacker's home phone, and that he had made several phone calls that implied he did not plan to surrender peacefully as he had initially agreed. He was sentenced to seven years' imprisonment in 1979.

References

{{Aviation accidents and incidents in 1978 Aircraft hijackings Accidents and incidents involving the Sud Aviation Caravelle

405 __NOTOC__ Year 405 ( CDV) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Stilicho and Anthemius (or, less frequently, year 1158 ''Ab ...

1978 in Finland Aviation accidents and incidents in 1978 September 1978 events in Europe

Hijacking

See also

References