Jürgen Schumann (born 29. April

1940 A calendar from 1940 according to the Gregorian calendar, factoring in the dates of Easter and related holidays, cannot be used again until the year 5280. Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January *January ...

Colditz Colditz () is a small town in the district of Leipzig, in Saxony, Germany. It is best known for Colditz Castle, the site of the Oflag IV-C POW camp for officers in World War II. Geography Colditz is situated in the Leipzig Bay, southeast of the c ...

; died

16 October Events Pre-1600 * 456 – Ricimer defeats Avitus at Piacenza and becomes master of the Western Roman Empire. * 690 – Empress Wu Zetian ascends to the throne of the Tang dynasty and proclaims herself ruler of the Chinese Empire. * 91 ...

1977 Events January * January 8 – Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (now the Democratic R ...

Aden Aden ( ar, عدن ' Yemeni: ) is a city, and since 2015, the temporary capital of Yemen, near the eastern approach to the Red Sea (the Gulf of Aden), some east of the strait Bab-el-Mandeb. Its population is approximately 800,000 people. ...

, South Yemen (now

Yemen Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, north and ...

) was a German

Pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...

. In 1977 he was the flight captain of the

Lufthansa Deutsche Lufthansa AG (), commonly shortened to Lufthansa, is the flag carrier of Germany. When combined with its subsidiaries, it is the second- largest airline in Europe in terms of passengers carried. Lufthansa is one of the five founding m ...

plane

Landshut Landshut (; bar, Landshuad) is a town in Bavaria in the south-east of Germany. Situated on the banks of the River Isar, Landshut is the capital of Lower Bavaria, one of the seven administrative regions of the Free State of Bavaria. It is also t ...

when it was hijacked. He was murdered by PLFP terrorists.

Life

In 1960 Schumann joined the Air Force of the

Bundeswehr The ''Bundeswehr'' (, meaning literally: ''Federal Defence'') is the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany. The ''Bundeswehr'' is divided into a military part (armed forces or ''Streitkräfte'') and a civil part, the military part con ...

and began his flying career at

Büchel Air Base Büchel Air Base is a military air base of the Luftwaffe in Büchel (Germany), near the city of Cochem and at about 70 km from Spangdahlem Air Base. It is home to the Taktisches Luftwaffengeschwader 33 (Tactical Air Force Wing 33; abbreviat ...

, Germany, where in 1965 he began working for TaktLwG 33 on the

Lockheed F-104 Starfighter The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter is an American single-engine, supersonic air superiority fighter which was extensively deployed as a fighter-bomber during the Cold War. Created as a day fighter by Lockheed as one of the "Century Series" of fi ...

. After his retirement as an

Hauptmann is a German word usually translated as captain when it is used as an officer's rank in the German, Austrian, and Swiss armies. While in contemporary German means 'main', it also has and originally had the meaning of 'head', i.e. ' literally ...

(Officer) in 1968 he became a civilian pilot for the German branch of

and was the Captain of the Lufthansa plane Landshut when it was hijacked on 13 October 1977. On 16 October 1977 he was able to share information with the authorities about the number of hijackers onboard the plane during a stopover in

Dubai Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics of ...

. Based on the interview by Dubai's defence- minister ( Muhammad ibn Raschid Al Maktum, Prime Minister, Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai since 4 January 2006), the hijackers also learnt that the leader made Schumann kneel in the aisle, threatening to shoot him if anything were to happen. . Upon landing on 16 October 1988 at

Aden International Airport Aden International Airport is an international airport in Aden, Yemen and the oldest airport in the Arabian peninsula. Prior to its use as a civil air facility, the aerodrome was known as RAF Khormaksar, which opened in 1917 and closed as an R ...

(in South Yemen at the time) on a sand strip near the runway (as the government had blocked all runways; the plane did not have enough fuel to reach another), Schumann left with permission from the plane's hijackers, to check the landing gear. He also used the opportunity to talk in the terminal about releasing the hostages. His last words before re-entering the aircraft were "I am going back now. I am sure they will kill me". Afterwards he willingly returned to the aircraft. On board he was yelled at by Akache, before being shot in the head. The Jürgen Schumann Barracks in Appen were named after him on 24 November 2021,after much Discussion.

External Links

* . He has since been removed.

References

1977 deaths 1940 births Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany German Air Force pilots Lufthansa people Terrorism victims Kidnapped people Murder victims {{DEFAULTSORT:Schumann, Jurgen