Lufthansa Flight 181 was a
Boeing
The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and ...
737-230C jetliner (reg. D-ABCE) named the ''Landshut'' that was
hijacked on the afternoon of 13 October 1977 by four members of the
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine ( ar, الجبهة الشعبية لتحرير فلسطين, translit=al-Jabhah al-Sha`biyyah li-Taḥrīr Filasṭīn, PFLP) is a secular Palestinian Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist an ...
, who called themselves Commando Martyr Halima. The objective of the hijacking was to secure the release of imprisoned
Red Army Faction
The Red Army Faction (RAF, ; , ),See the section " Name" also known as the Baader–Meinhof Group or Baader–Meinhof Gang (, , active 1970–1998), was a West German far-left Marxist-Leninist urban guerrilla group founded in 1970.
The ...
leaders in German prisons. In the early hours of 18 October, just after midnight, the
West German
West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
counter-terrorism group
GSG 9, backed by the
Somali Armed Forces
The Somali Armed Forces are the military forces of the Federal Republic of Somalia. Headed by the president as commander-in-chief, they are constitutionally mandated to ensure the nation's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity. C ...
, stormed the aircraft in
Mogadishu
Mogadishu (, also ; so, Muqdisho or ; ar, مقديشو ; it, Mogadiscio ), locally known as Xamar or Hamar, is the capital and most populous city of Somalia. The city has served as an important port connecting traders across the Indian Oc ...
,
Somalia
Somalia, , Osmanya script: 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘𐒕𐒖; ar, الصومال, aṣ-Ṣūmāl officially the Federal Republic of SomaliaThe ''Federal Republic of Somalia'' is the country's name per Article 1 of thProvisional Constitut ...
, with 86 passengers and four of the total five crew rescued. The rescue operation was codenamed ''Feuerzauber'' (German for "Fire Magic"). The hijacking is considered to be part of the
German Autumn.
Lufthansa crew
Two flight crew and three cabin crew operated the round-trip flight from
Frankfurt
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its ...
to
Palma de Mallorca
Palma (; ; also known as ''Palma de Mallorca'', officially between 1983–88, 2006–08, and 2012–16) is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands in Spain. It is situated on the south coast of Mallorc ...
:
; (37)
: ''Captain.'' Born in
Colditz in 1940, a former
Luftwaffe
The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German '' Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the '' Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabt ...
Lockheed
F-104 Starfighter pilot. On 16 October at
Aden Airport, after being permitted to leave the aircraft to check the plane's airworthiness, he went to talk to the Yemeni airport authorities. He subsequently boarded the plane after returning and was then murdered by terrorist leader Akache. Posthumously awarded the
German Federal Cross of Merit 1st class, he was survived by his wife and two sons. The building housing the Lufthansa Pilot School in
Bremen
Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the Germany, German States of Germany, state Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie H ...
was named in his honour, as was a street in the
Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total l ...
n city of
Landshut. He is buried in
Babenhausen in
Hesse
Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major historic cities are Da ...
.
; Jürgen Vietor (35)
: ''Co-Pilot''. Born in
Kassel
Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2 ...
in 1942, a former German Navy pilot. He piloted the ''Landshut'' from
Aden to
Mogadishu
Mogadishu (, also ; so, Muqdisho or ; ar, مقديشو ; it, Mogadiscio ), locally known as Xamar or Hamar, is the capital and most populous city of Somalia. The city has served as an important port connecting traders across the Indian Oc ...
. He returned to work just six weeks after the hijacking, and the first aircraft he was assigned to was the ''Landshut'' which had already been repaired and returned to service. He retired in 1999. He was also awarded the
German Federal Cross of Merit 1st Class. He subsequently returned the medal in December 2008 in protest over the release on probation of the former
Red Army Faction
The Red Army Faction (RAF, ; , ),See the section " Name" also known as the Baader–Meinhof Group or Baader–Meinhof Gang (, , active 1970–1998), was a West German far-left Marxist-Leninist urban guerrilla group founded in 1970.
The ...
terrorist
Christian Klar, who had been involved in the kidnap and murder of
Hanns Martin Schleyer
Hans "Hanns" Martin Schleyer (; 1 May 1915 – 18 October 1977) was a German business executive, and employer and industry representative, who served as President of two powerful commercial organizations, the Confederation of German Employers' ...
in 1977.
; Hannelore Piegler (33)
: ''Chief flight attendant''. She was in charge of the cabin crew, servicing the first class passengers. Subsequently she published a book on the hijacking entitled 'A Hundred Hours Between Fear and Hope'.
; Anna-Maria Staringer (28)
: ''Flight attendant''. She had her 28th birthday on the flight. Akache ordered a birthday cake and champagne via the radio in Dubai. The airport catering supplied a cake with 28 candles embellished with "Happy Birthday Anna-Maria".
;
Gabriele Dillmann (23)
: ''Flight attendant''. She was dubbed "the angel of Mogadishu" (''Engel von Mogadischu'') by the German press. Like Schumann and Vietor she was awarded the
German Federal Cross of Merit. She subsequently married Lufthansa pilot Rüdeger von Lutzau, who piloted the Lufthansa Boeing 707 aircraft with the GSG9 anti-terrorist squad that landed in Mogadishu. As
Gabriele von Lutzau
Gabriele von Lutzau (née Dillmann; born 15 August 1954) is a German heroine and sculptor. She is remembered as the "Angel of Mogadishu" for her role in a notorious hijacking, and is also noted for her abstract beechwood sculptures. She is by m ...
she has acquired an international reputation as a sculptor (principally of figures in
beechwood), and has exhibited in numerous exhibitions in Germany and throughout Europe.
Key West German rescue personnel
; Colonel
Ulrich Wegener (48)
: Federal Border Protection (''
Bundesgrenzschutz
Bundesgrenzschutz (BGS; en, Federal Border Guard) is the former name of the German ''Bundespolizei'' (Federal Police). Established on 16 March 1951 as a subordinate agency of the Federal Ministry of the Interior, the BGS originally was prima ...
'') officer who had served as liaison officer with the West German Interior Ministry at the time of the
Munich massacre
The Munich massacre was a terrorist attack carried out during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany, by eight members of the Palestinian militant organization Black September, who infiltrated the Olympic Village, killed two members ...
by the PLO during the
1972 Olympic Games. He was subsequently appointed by the West German government to establish and lead an elite anti-terrorist squad. The unit was officially established on 17 April 1973 as a part of West Germany's federal border guard service and named
GSG 9, which stands for ''Grenzschutzgruppe 9'' (Border Protection Group 9), as the ''Bundesgrenzschutz'' already had eight regular border guard groups. Wegener was trained by both the British
SAS
SAS or Sas may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''SAS'' (novel series), a French book series by Gérard de Villiers
* ''Shimmer and Shine'', an American animated children's television series
* Southern All Stars, a Japanese rock ba ...
and the Israeli
Sayeret Matkal
General Staff Reconnaissance Unit (formerly Unit 269 or Unit 262), more commonly known as Sayeret Matkal ( he, סיירת מטכ״ל) is the special reconnaissance unit (''sayeret'') of Israel's General Staff (''matkal''). It is the prime special ...
, which were the only known established anti-terrorist units in the world at the time. He also participated in the rescue of Israeli hostages in
Operation Entebbe
Operation Entebbe, also known as the Entebbe Raid or Operation Thunderbolt, was a counter-terrorist hostage-rescue mission carried out by commandos of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) at Entebbe Airport in Uganda on 4 July 1976.
A week ...
in 1976. Wegener planned and commanded the successful GSG 9 operation, code-named Fire Magic, to rescue the ''Landshut'' hostages at Mogadishu. After his retirement from GSG 9, Wegener worked as a consultant to help establish counter-terrorism units in various foreign countries. Wegener was a member of the KÖTTER GmbH & Co. KG Verwaltungsdienstleistungen Security Committee. He died on 28 December 2017.
;
Major Klaus Blatte (38)
: Deputy Commander of GSG 9 in 1977 and one of the four assault squad leaders that stormed the ''Landshut'' at Mogadishu. When Wegener retired, Blatte succeeded him as commander of GSG 9.
; Minister
Hans-Jürgen Wischnewski (55)
: Minister of State at the Federal Chancellery who was designated by Chancellor
Helmut Schmidt
Helmut Heinrich Waldemar Schmidt (; 23 December 1918 – 10 November 2015) was a German politician and member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), who served as the chancellor of West Germany from 1974 to 1982.
Before becoming C ...
as his special envoy to coordinate the political negotiations with the various foreign governments to facilitate the release or rescue of the ''Landshut'' hostages. Due to his excellent contacts and personal relationships with Arab leaders, he was nicknamed "Ben Wisch" by the German press. He lost his position after the
CDU regained power in 1982, becoming a travelling consultant to
Arab
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Wester ...
, African, and South American countries, advising them on negotiating techniques and pacification policies to deal with terrorist and insurgent groups. He died in 2005.
; Chancellor
Helmut Schmidt
Helmut Heinrich Waldemar Schmidt (; 23 December 1918 – 10 November 2015) was a German politician and member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), who served as the chancellor of West Germany from 1974 to 1982.
Before becoming C ...
(59)
:
German Federal Chancellor (''Bundeskanzler'' ) between 1974 and 1982 who adopted a tough, uncompromising stance on the
Hanns Martin Schleyer
Hans "Hanns" Martin Schleyer (; 1 May 1915 – 18 October 1977) was a German business executive, and employer and industry representative, who served as President of two powerful commercial organizations, the Confederation of German Employers' ...
kidnapping and Lufthansa 181 hijacking in 1977. He authorised the GSG 9 mission to rescue the ''Landshut'' hostages and his anti-terrorist policies were successful in overcoming the long-standing threat posed by the
Red Army Faction
The Red Army Faction (RAF, ; , ),See the section " Name" also known as the Baader–Meinhof Group or Baader–Meinhof Gang (, , active 1970–1998), was a West German far-left Marxist-Leninist urban guerrilla group founded in 1970.
The ...
. After retiring from the
Bundestag
The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet (assembly), Diet") is the German Federalism, federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representat ...
in 1986, he helped found the committee supporting the
EMU
The emu () (''Dromaius novaehollandiae'') is the second-tallest living bird after its ratite relative the ostrich. It is endemic to Australia where it is the largest native bird and the only extant member of the genus '' Dromaius''. The ...
and creation of the
European Central Bank
The European Central Bank (ECB) is the prime component of the monetary Eurosystem and the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) as well as one of seven institutions of the European Union. It is one of the world's most important centra ...
. He died in 2015.
Hijacking
At 11:00 on Thursday 13 October 1977,
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 ...
flight LH 181, a
Boeing 737
The Boeing 737 is a narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Renton Factory in Washington.
Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the twinjet retains the 707 fuselage width and six abreast seating with two ...
named ''Landshut'', took off from
Palma de Mallorca
Palma (; ; also known as ''Palma de Mallorca'', officially between 1983–88, 2006–08, and 2012–16) is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands in Spain. It is situated on the south coast of Mallorc ...
''en route'' to
Frankfurt
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its ...
with 86 passengers and five crew, piloted by Captain Jürgen Schumann, with co-pilot Jürgen Vietor at the controls. About 30 minutes later, as it was overflying
Marseille
Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fran ...
, the aircraft was hijacked by four militants calling themselves "Commando Martyr Halima" in honour of fellow militant
Brigitte Kuhlmann
Brigitte Kuhlmann (1947–1976) was a founding member of the West German left-wing terrorist group ''Revolutionäre Zellen'' (RZ, or Revolutionary Cells in English). She was killed by the Israel Defense Forces in Entebbe, Uganda, during Operation ...
, who had been killed in
Operation Entebbe
Operation Entebbe, also known as the Entebbe Raid or Operation Thunderbolt, was a counter-terrorist hostage-rescue mission carried out by commandos of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) at Entebbe Airport in Uganda on 4 July 1976.
A week ...
the previous year. The leader of the hijacker group was
Palestinian
Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...
terrorist Zohair Youssif Akache (23, male), who adopted the
alias "Captain Martyr Mahmud". The other three were
Suhaila Sayeh (24, female), a Palestinian, and two
Lebanese people
The Lebanese people ( ar, الشعب اللبناني / ALA-LC: ', ) are the people inhabiting or originating from Lebanon. The term may also include those who had inhabited Mount Lebanon and the Anti-Lebanon Mountains prior to the creati ...
, Wabil Harb (23, male) and Hind Alameh (22, female). Akache ("Mahmud") angrily burst into the cockpit, brandishing a fully loaded pistol in his hand. He forcibly removed Vietor from the cockpit, sending him to the economy class area to join the passengers and flight attendants, leaving Schumann to take over the flight controls. As the other three hijackers knocked over food trays, ordering the hostages to put their hands up, Mahmud coerced Captain Schumann to fly east to
Larnaca
Larnaca ( el, Λάρνακα ; tr, Larnaka) is a city on the south east coast of Cyprus and the capital of the Larnaca District, district of the same name. It is the third-largest city in the country, after Nicosia and Limassol, with a metro ...
in
Cyprus
Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ...
, but was told that the plane had insufficient fuel and would have to land in
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus ( legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
first.
Rome
The hijacked aircraft changed course at around 14:30 (as noticed by air traffic controllers at
Aix-en-Provence
Aix-en-Provence (, , ; oc, label=Provençal, Ais de Provença in classical norm, or in Mistralian norm, ; la, Aquae Sextiae), or simply Aix ( medieval Occitan: ''Aics''), is a city and commune in southern France, about north of Marseille. ...
), diverting eastward and landed at
Fiumicino Airport in Fiumicino, Rome at 15:45 for refuelling. The hijackers made their first demands, acting in concert with a
Red Army Faction
The Red Army Faction (RAF, ; , ),See the section " Name" also known as the Baader–Meinhof Group or Baader–Meinhof Gang (, , active 1970–1998), was a West German far-left Marxist-Leninist urban guerrilla group founded in 1970.
The ...
group, the Siegfried Hausner Commando, which had kidnapped West German industrialist
Hanns Martin Schleyer
Hans "Hanns" Martin Schleyer (; 1 May 1915 – 18 October 1977) was a German business executive, and employer and industry representative, who served as President of two powerful commercial organizations, the Confederation of German Employers' ...
five weeks earlier: they demanded the release of ten Red Army Faction (RAF) terrorists detained at the
JVA Stuttgart-Stammheim prison, plus two Palestinian compatriots held in
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
, as well as US$15 million. West German Interior Minister
Werner Maihofer contacted his Italian counterpart
Francesco Cossiga and suggested the plane's tyres be shot out to prevent the aircraft from taking off. After consulting with his colleagues, Cossiga decided that the most desirable solution for the
Italian government
The government of Italy is in the form of a democratic republic, and was established by a constitution in 1948. It consists of legislative, executive, and judicial subdivisions, as well as a Head of State, or President.
The Italian Constitu ...
was to rid itself of the problem altogether. The aircraft was refuelled with a full 11 tons of fuel, allowing Mahmud to order co-pilot Vietor (who had been allowed to re-enter the cockpit on the ground at Fiumicino at Schumann's behest) to take off and fly the plane to Larnaca at 17:45 (5:45 p.m.) without even obtaining clearance from Rome
air traffic control
Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through a given section of controlled airspace, and can provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled airsp ...
.
Larnaca
The ''Landshut'' landed in
Larnaca
Larnaca ( el, Λάρνακα ; tr, Larnaka) is a city on the south east coast of Cyprus and the capital of the Larnaca District, district of the same name. It is the third-largest city in the country, after Nicosia and Limassol, with a metro ...
, Cyprus, at 20:28. After about an hour, a local
PLO
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ar, منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية, ') is a Palestinian nationalist political and militant organization founded in 1964 with the initial purpose of establishing Arab unity and s ...
representative arrived at the airport and over the radio tried to persuade Mahmud to release the hostages. This only provoked a furious response from Mahmud, who started angrily screaming at him in
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walte ...
until the PLO representative gave up and left. The aircraft was then refuelled and Schumann asked flight control for a routing to
Beirut
Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...
. He was told that
Beirut Airport was blockaded and closed to them and Mahmud suggested that they would fly to
Damascus instead. The ''Landshut'' took off at 22:50, heading for Beirut, but was refused permission to land there at 23:01. After also being denied landing permission in Damascus at 23:14,
Baghdad
Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesipho ...
at 00:13 (14 October), and
Kuwait
Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to the no ...
at 00:58, they flew to
Bahrain
Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an ...
.
Bahrain
Schumann was told by a passing
Qantas
Qantas Airways Limited ( ) is the flag carrier of Australia and the country's largest airline by fleet size, international flights, and international destinations. It is the List of airlines by foundation date, world's third-oldest airline sti ...
airliner that
Bahrain Airport
Bahrain International Airport ( ar, مطار البحرين الدولي, ''maṭār al-Baḥrayn al-dwalī'') is the international airport of Bahrain. Located on Muharraq Island, adjacent to the capital Manama, it serves as the hub for the na ...
was also closed to them. Schumann radioed flight control and told them that they had insufficient fuel to fly elsewhere and despite being told again that the airport was closed, he was suddenly given an automatic landing frequency by the flight controller. The plane finally touched down in Bahrain at 01:52 on 14 October. On arrival, the aircraft was immediately surrounded by armed troops and Mahmud radioed the tower that unless the soldiers were withdrawn, he would shoot the co-pilot. After a stand-off with the tower, with Mahmud setting a five‑minute deadline and holding a loaded pistol to Vietor's head, the troops were withdrawn. The aircraft was then refuelled and took off for
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 ...
at 03:24.
Dubai
Approaching Dubai, the 737 was again denied landing permission. Overflying the
Dubai airport in the early light of dawn, the hijackers and pilots saw the runway blocked with military jeeps, trucks and fire engines. Running short of fuel, Schumann radioed the tower to announce that they were going to land anyway. As they made a low pass over the airport, the vehicles were finally being removed. At 05:40 local time, the pilots made a smooth touchdown on the airport's main runway at sunrise. The plane was parked at the parking bay around 05:51, at daybreak.
In Dubai, the terrorists instructed the control tower to send airport crew staffers to empty the toilet tanks, supply food, water, medicine, newspapers, and take away the rubbish. Captain Schumann was able to communicate the number of hijackers on board, specifying that there were two male and two female hijackers by dropping different types of cigarettes on the tarmac from out of the cockpit window. In an interview with journalists, this information was revealed by Dubai's
Sheikh Mohammed, then Minister of Defence. The hijackers learned about this, possibly from the radio, causing an enraged Mahmud to angrily threaten Schumann's life for secretly sharing this coded message. The aircraft remained parked on the tarmac stationed at Dubai airport all throughout Saturday 15 October, during which the jetliner experienced technical snags with the electrical generator, air conditioning and
auxiliary power unit
An auxiliary power unit (APU) is a device on a vehicle that provides energy for functions other than propulsion. They are commonly found on large aircraft and naval ships as well as some large land vehicles. Aircraft APUs generally produce 115&n ...
breaking down. The hijackers demanded that engineers fix the plane. On the morning of Sunday 16 October, Mahmud threatened to start shooting hostages if the aircraft was not refuelled, and Dubai authorities eventually agreed to refuel the plane.
In the meantime, both
Hans-Jürgen Wischnewski, the
West German
West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
minister responsible for handling the hijacking, and Colonel
Ulrich Wegener, commander of elite German anti-terrorist squad
GSG 9, had arrived in Dubai to try to persuade the government to agree to let GSG 9 commandos into Dubai to storm the aircraft. However, after permission was granted for GSG 9 commandos to storm the aircraft, SAS and GSG 9 senior operatives insisted on additional combat exercises and dry-runs on an adjacent airstrip. Reports suggest up to 45 hours of training was conducted while in Dubai (over a period of 80 hours). While Wegener was contemplating his options, the jetliner was on the move again after the hijackers fully refuelled the ''Landshut'' plane and the pilots started up the engines. At 12:19 on Sunday 16 October it took off, bound for
Salalah
Salalah ( ar, صَلَالَة, Ṣalālah) is the capital and largest city of the southern Omani governorate of Dhofar. Its population in 2009 was about 197,169.
Salalah is the third-largest city in the Sultanate of Oman, and the largest cit ...
and Masirah in
Oman
Oman ( ; ar, عُمَان ' ), officially the Sultanate of Oman ( ar, سلْطنةُ عُمان ), is an Arabian country located in southwestern Asia. It is situated on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, and spans the mouth of ...
, where permission to land was once again denied and both airports were blockaded. After Riyadh also closed and blockaded its airport runways at 14:50 on 16 October (three days after the hijacking began), a course was set to
Aden in
South Yemen
South Yemen ( ar, اليمن الجنوبي, al-Yaman al-Janubiyy), officially the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (, ), also referred to as Democratic Yemen (, ) or Yemen (Aden) (, ), was a communist state that existed from 1967 to 19 ...
, at the limit of the plane's fuel range.
Aden
Approaching and overflying Aden, the flight was yet again denied permission to land, this time at
Aden International Airport, and both main runways (including the apron) were blocked by military jeeps, tanks and other vehicles. The plane was running dangerously low on fuel, but the Aden airport authorities adamantly refused to clear the runways, leaving co-pilot Vietor little choice but to make an emergency landing on an unpaved sand strip roughly parallel to (in-between) both runways. The plane remained largely intact following the ground roll but when the Aden authorities told the hijackers and pilots that they needed to fly away, both pilots were concerned about the aircraft's airworthiness after its rough, hard landing on rugged, rocky and sandy terrain, deeming it unsafe to take off and fly the jetliner again until a thorough engineering inspection had been made. After the engineers claimed that everything was all right with the airframe, Mahmud consequently allowed Schumann to check the condition of the landing gear and the engines. Both engines had ingested a copious amount of sand and dirt at maximum reverse thrust and were clogged up. The landing gear had not collapsed, but its structure was weakened and its extension/retraction mechanism was damaged. Schumann did not immediately return to the plane after inspecting it, even after numerous calls by the hijackers threatening to detonate the aircraft because of his departure. The reasons for his prolonged absence remain unclear to this day. Some news reports, including interviews with Yemeni airport authorities, imply that Schumann was asking ground crews to prevent the flight from taking off and to refuse to accede to the terrorists' demands.
[onlineFocus from 08-25-2007]
Retrieved 12 January 2008.[Michael Hanfeld: ''Der wahre Held der „Landshut“'']
Retrieved 12 January 2008.
Schumann subsequently boarded the plane to face the wrath of Mahmud, who furiously forced him to kneel on the passenger cabin floor before fatally shooting him in the head, without giving him a chance to explain himself.
The hijacked plane was refuelled at 01:00 on 17 October and at 02:02, flown by co-pilot Vietor, it dangerously and sluggishly took off from Aden on course for the
Somali
Somali may refer to:
Horn of Africa
* Somalis, an inhabitant or ethnicity associated with Greater Somali Region
** Proto-Somali, the ancestors of modern Somalis
** Somali culture
** Somali cuisine
** Somali language, a Cushitic language
** Soma ...
capital of
Mogadishu
Mogadishu (, also ; so, Muqdisho or ; ar, مقديشو ; it, Mogadiscio ), locally known as Xamar or Hamar, is the capital and most populous city of Somalia. The city has served as an important port connecting traders across the Indian Oc ...
.
Mogadishu
On the morning of 17 October at daybreak, around 06:34 local time, the ''Landshut'' made an unannounced and textbook landing on the main runway at
Aden Adde airport in Mogadishu. The Somali government had initially refused the plane permission to land, but relented when the jet appeared in Somali air space, for fear of endangering the passengers’ lives by turning the aircraft away. The chief hijacker leader Mahmud (Akache) told co-pilot Vietor that he was very impressed by Vietor's impressive flying skills and that consequently he was free to disembark and flee, since the crippled plane was in no state to fly elsewhere. Vietor, however, opted to remain with the 82 passengers and three other crew members on board. After the twin‐engine aircraft was parked in front of the main airport terminal, it was surrounded at a distance by armed Somali troops. Schumann's corpse (which had been stored in a coat closet on board the flight throughout the final leg of the journey) was dumped via the aircraft's right rear emergency evacuation slide onto the tarmac, and whisked away in an ambulance. During the day, the hijackers asked for food and drugs, which were sent after the Somali government gave its permission; a Somali request that the hijackers release the women and children in exchange for the supplies was rejected. The hijackers set a 16:00 deadline for the Red Army Faction prisoners to be released, at which time they threatened to blow up the aircraft. The hijackers poured the
duty-free spirits over the hostages in preparation for the destruction of the aircraft, which did not eventuate, the hijackers were told that the West German government had agreed to release the RAF prisoners but that their transfer to Mogadishu would take several more hours. The hijackers agreed to extend the deadline to 02:30 the following morning (18 October).
Operation Feuerzauber
Meanwhile, while West German
Chancellor
Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...
Helmut Schmidt
Helmut Heinrich Waldemar Schmidt (; 23 December 1918 – 10 November 2015) was a German politician and member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), who served as the chancellor of West Germany from 1974 to 1982.
Before becoming C ...
attempted to negotiate an agreement with
Somali President
The president of Somalia ( so, Madaxaweynaha Soomaaliya) is the head of state of Somalia. The president is also commander-in-chief of the Somali Armed Forces. The president represents the Federal Republic of Somalia, and the unity of the So ...
Siad Barre
Mohamed Siad Barre ( so, Maxamed Siyaad Barre, Osmanya script: ; ar, محمد سياد بري; c. 1910 – 2 January 1995) was a Somali head of state and general who served as the 3rd president of the Somali Democratic Republic from 1969 to 1 ...
, special envoy
Hans-Jürgen Wischnewski and
GSG 9 commander
Ulrich Wegener arrived at Mogadishu airport from
Jeddah in a Lufthansa 707 aircraft co-piloted by Rüdiger von Lutzau (Gabriele Dillmann's fiancé). In West Germany, a team of 30 GSG 9 commandos under deputy commander Major Klaus Blatte had assembled at Hangelar airfield near
Bonn
The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...
, awaiting instructions. The commandos took off from
Cologne-Bonn Airport on a
Boeing 707
The Boeing 707 is an American, long-range, narrow-body airliner, the first jetliner developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes.
Developed from the Boeing 367-80 prototype first flown in 1954, the initial first flew on December ...
on Monday morning (17 October) en route to
Djibouti
Djibouti, ar, جيبوتي ', french: link=no, Djibouti, so, Jabuuti officially the Republic of Djibouti, is a country in the Horn of Africa, bordered by Somalia to the south, Ethiopia to the southwest, Eritrea in the north, and the Re ...
, within a short flying time of Somalia, while Schmidt negotiated with the Somalis. While the team was flying over
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the Er ...
, an agreement was reached and permission given to land at Mogadishu. The aircraft landed at 20:00 local time with all its lights out to avoid detection by the hijackers.
After four hours, unloading all of their equipment and undertaking the necessary reconnaissance, Wegener and Blatte finalised the assault plan, scheduled to begin at 02:00 local time. They decided to approach from the rear of the aircraft, its
blind spot, in six teams using black-painted
aluminium
Aluminium (aluminum in AmE, American and CanE, Canadian English) is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately o ...
ladders to gain access to the aircraft through the escape hatches on the bottom of the fuselage and via the
overwing doors. In the meantime, a fictitious progress report on the journey being taken by the released prisoners was being fed to Mahmud by German representatives in the airport tower. Just after 02:00, Mahmud was told that the plane carrying the prisoners had just departed from
Cairo
Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo met ...
after refuelling and he was asked to provide the conditions of the prisoner/hostage exchange over the radio.
As a small force, the GSG-9 relied on their Somali counterparts to maintain ground defence around the aircraft as well as deception operations. Several minutes before the rescue, Somali soldiers lit a fire in front of the jet as a diversionary tactic, prompting Akache and two of the other three hijackers to rush to the cockpit to observe what was going on, isolating them from the hostages in the cabin. At 02:07 local time, the GSG 9 commandos silently climbed up their ladders and opened the emergency doors. Wegener, at the head of one group, opened the forward door, and two other groups, led by Sergeant-Major Dieter Fox and Sergeant Joachim Huemmer, stormed the aircraft using ladders to climb up onto the wings and open both overwing emergency doors at the same time. Shouting in German for the passengers and crew to get on the floor, the commandos shot all four terrorists, killing Wabil Harb and Hind Alameh and wounding Zohair Akache and
Suhaila Sayeh. Akache died of his injuries hours later. One GSG 9 commando was wounded by return fire from the terrorists. Three passengers and a flight attendant were slightly wounded in the crossfire. An American passenger aboard the plane described the rescue: "I saw the door open and a man appears. His face was painted black and he starts shouting in German 'We're here to rescue you, get down!'
'Wir sind hier, um euch zu retten, runter!''and they started shooting."
The emergency escape chutes were deployed, and passengers and crew were ordered to quickly evacuate the aircraft. At 02:12 local time, just five minutes after the assault had commenced, the commandos radioed: ''"Frühlingszeit! Frühlingszeit!"'' ("Springtime! Springtime!"), which was the code word for the successful completion of the operation. A few moments later, a radio signal was sent to Chancellor Schmidt in
Bonn
The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...
: "Four opponents down – hostages free – four hostages slightly wounded – one commando slightly wounded".
The rescuers escorted all 86 passengers to safety,
and a few hours later they were all flown to
Cologne-Bonn Airport, landing in the early afternoon of Tuesday 18 October and given a hero's welcome.
Aftermath
News of the rescue of the hostages was followed by the deaths (and alleged suicides) of RAF (Red Army Faction) members
Andreas Baader
Berndt Andreas Baader (6 May 1943 – 18 October 1977) was one of the first leaders of the West German left-wing militant organization Red Army Faction (RAF), also commonly known as ''the Baader-Meinhof Group''.
Life
Andreas Baader was born ...
,
Gudrun Ensslin and
Jan-Carl Raspe at JVA Stuttgart-Stammheim Prison. RAF member
Irmgard Möller
Irmgard Möller (born 13 May 1947) is a former member of the German group the Red Army Faction (RAF). Her father was a high school teacher, and before joining the RAF, she was a student of German studies.
RAF activity
*On 12 May 1972, Mölle ...
also attempted suicide but survived her injuries. On Wednesday 19 October, the body of Hanns-Martin Schleyer, who had been kidnapped by the RAF some five weeks prior to the hijacking, was found in the trunk of a car on a side street in
Mulhouse
Mulhouse (; Alsatian: or , ; ; meaning ''mill house'') is a city of the Haut-Rhin department, in the Grand Est region, eastern France, close to the Swiss and German borders. It is the largest city in Haut-Rhin and second largest in Alsace af ...
; the RAF had shot him dead upon hearing about the deaths of their imprisoned comrades. They contacted French newspaper ''
Libération
''Libération'' (), popularly known as ''Libé'' (), is a daily newspaper in France, founded in Paris by Jean-Paul Sartre and Serge July in 1973 in the wake of the protest movements of May 1968. Initially positioned on the far-left of France ...
'' to announce his 'execution'; a subsequent
post-mortem examination
An autopsy (post-mortem examination, obduction, necropsy, or autopsia cadaverum) is a surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse by dissection to determine the cause, mode, and manner of death or to evaluate any di ...
indicated that he had been killed the previous day.
After the ''Landshut'' crisis, the German government stated it would never again negotiate with terrorists (as it previously had with
Lufthansa Flight 649 and
615
__NOTOC__
Year 615 ( DCXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 615 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era ...
hijackers). Chancellor
Helmut Schmidt
Helmut Heinrich Waldemar Schmidt (; 23 December 1918 – 10 November 2015) was a German politician and member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), who served as the chancellor of West Germany from 1974 to 1982.
Before becoming C ...
was widely praised among western countries for his decision to storm the aircraft to rescue the hostages, although some criticized the risky action.
West German
West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
-
Somali
Somali may refer to:
Horn of Africa
* Somalis, an inhabitant or ethnicity associated with Greater Somali Region
** Proto-Somali, the ancestors of modern Somalis
** Somali culture
** Somali cuisine
** Somali language, a Cushitic language
** Soma ...
relations received a significant boost after the successful operation.
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 ...
henceforth serviced all
Somali Airlines planes in West Germany, while
Frankfurt
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its ...
became Somali Airlines' new gateway to
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...
. The West German government, as a sign of gratitude, issued two multi-million dollar loans to the Somali government to assist in the development of the country's fisheries, agriculture and other sectors.
The aircraft
While under control of the hijackers, the plane had travelled .
Originally built in January 1970, the ''Landshut'' is a
Boeing 737
The Boeing 737 is a narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Renton Factory in Washington.
Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the twinjet retains the 707 fuselage width and six abreast seating with two ...
-230C (manufacturer's serial number 20254, Boeing line number 230,
registration ) with two Pratt & Whitney JT8D-9A engines, named after the city of
Landshut in Bavaria. The damaged aircraft was ferried back to Germany, repaired, and returned to service in late November 1977. It continued to fly for Lufthansa until September 1985, and was sold three months later to US carrier
Presidential Airways. It subsequently changed hands several times.
Purchase
The plane ultimately ended up in the fleet of Brazilian carrier
TAF Linhas Aéreas, which purchased it for US$4,708,268 from ''Transmille Air Services'' of
Kuala Lumpur
, anthem = ''Maju dan Sejahtera''
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, pushpin_map = Malaysia#Southeast Asia#Asia
, pushpin_map_caption =
, coordinates =
, sub ...
. The Brazilian company subsequently went bankrupt and was unable to continue paying off the debt. TAF stopped service of the aircraft under registration PT-MTB in January 2008, owing to severe damage that made it unairworthy, and placed it in storage in
Fortaleza Airport
Fortaleza-Pinto Martins International Airport is the international airport serving Fortaleza, Brazil. It is named after ''Euclides Pinto Martins'' (1892–1924) a Ceará-born aviator, who in 1922 was one of the pioneers of the air-link betwee ...
for years. On 14 August 2017, after Mr Kurpjuweit made inquiries to
Fraport
Fraport AG Frankfurt Airport Services Worldwide,[Dornier Museum
The Dornier Museum Friedrichshafen is an aerospace museum located in the German town of Friederichshafen near Lake Constance. The museum exhibits the aircraft designs of Claude Dornier, the Dornier company and aerospace products of Airbus. ...]
, along with the German Foreign Ministry, subsequently agreed to the project. Informed of the plans, Kurpjuweit helped the museum director with a feasibility project involving transport of the aircraft in a
Volga-Dnepr Airlines An-124
The Antonov An-124 Ruslan (; russian: Антонов Ан-124 Руслан, , Ruslan; NATO reporting name: Condor) is a large, strategic airlift, four-engined aircraft that was designed in the 1980s by the Antonov design bureau in the Ukra ...
. The 737 was acquired from TAF for R$75,936 (€20,519) in an agreement with the Fortaleza Airport administration for payment of taxes.
On 15 August 2017, a MD-11F (registration D-ALCC) was sent to the airport with 8.5 tonnes of equipment and 15
Lufthansa Technik mechanics to dismantle the B737.
On 21 and 22 September 2017, an
An-124
The Antonov An-124 Ruslan (; russian: Антонов Ан-124 Руслан, , Ruslan; NATO reporting name: Condor) is a large, strategic airlift, four-engined aircraft that was designed in the 1980s by the Antonov design bureau in the Ukra ...
and
Il-76
The Ilyushin Il-76 (russian: Илью́шин Ил-76; NATO reporting name: Candid) is a multi-purpose, fixed-wing, four-engine turbofan strategic airlifter designed by the Soviet Union's Ilyushin design bureau. It was first planned as a com ...
, also from
Volga-Dnepr Airlines, arrived at Fortaleza. The An-124 carried the
wing
A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is exp ...
s and
fuselage
The fuselage (; from the French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraft t ...
back to Europe, while the Il-76 carried the engines and seats. After a refuelling stop in
Cape Verde
, national_anthem = ()
, official_languages = Portuguese
, national_languages = Cape Verdean Creole
, capital = Praia
, coordinates =
, largest_city = capital
, demonym ...
, both arrived in
Friedrichshafen
Friedrichshafen ( or ; Low Alemannic: ''Hafe'' or ''Fridrichshafe'') is a city on the northern shoreline of Lake Constance (the ''Bodensee'') in Southern Germany, near the borders of both Switzerland and Austria. It is the district capital (''K ...
on 23 September 2017, for a total cost of €10 million paid by the Foreign Ministry. Smaller parts and equipment were sent to Germany in two
cargo ship containers. Upon arrival, the parts were presented to approximately 4,000 people during a special event. The recovered ''Landshut'' aircraft was scheduled to be restored and exhibited by October 2019.
Storage
The disassembled plane has since been stored in a hangar at ''Airplus maintenance GmbH'' in Friedrichshafen. The plan to restore and display it in its original 1977 Lufthansa livery was never carried out.
Funding issues and questions over competing responsibilities between ministries delayed the project, as did uncertainty over €300,000 in yearly costs. In February 2020, a proposal to transfer the plane parts to
Berlin Tempelhof was rejected by the Ministry. After three years in a hangar and with the 737's fate unresolved, David Dornier stepped down in September 2020 as museum director and was replaced by attorney Hans-Peter Rien. He and Culture Minister
Monika Grütters
Monika Grütters (born 9 January 1962) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media in the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel from 2013-2021. She has ...
(CDU) never agreed on further financing, and the project was placed on hold.
Studies
The federal government looked into whether the aircraft could be exhibited in the
Air Force Museum in Berlin-Gatow. The plans did not meet with approval from historians and experts, due to its remote location and lack of connection between the German army and the “Landshut” aircraft. CSU members of the Munich city council proposed bringing the aircraft to Munich, and an application was filed to see if the plane could be exhibited at former
Munich Riem Airport. The city highlighted to Culture Minister Grütters the aircraft's connection to
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...
, where it had been christened on 7 August 1970 in a Riem Airport hangar in the presence of a large delegation from Landshut. After exactly three years, plans to exhibit the 737 in Dornier Museum were effectively over.
Museum
€15 million was made available from the German federal government, in the following allotments:
*€7.5 million:
**€2.5 million: aircraft maintenance and restoration
**€2.5 million: hangar construction
**€1.5 million: provision of technical equipment
**€1.0 million: implementation of teaching concept
*€7.5 million: operating subsidy for the 10-year period, tied to the requirement to limit museum entrance fees to 5 euros per person
Location
The money is linked to the Friedrichshafen location, but not to others. However the Culture Ministry had objections and postponed a final decision, to Headquarters of the Federal Police Directorate in Sankt Augustin-Hangelar in North Rhine-Westphalia with the headquarters of the GSG9 special force. A Web Portal about the case was made https://www.landshutmuseum.com/
Decisions
1- The Aircraft will not be restored.
2- It will not have a museum just for it, but parts could be displayed spread in several locations.
3- Aircraft is possible to be mostly recycled.
Use of the name ''Landshut'' in other airplanes
The name Landshut has been used by Lufthansa on three other planes since 1985:
*
Boeing 737-200
The Boeing 737 is a narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Boeing Renton Factory, Renton Factory in Washington (state), Washington.
Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the twinjet retains the Boeing 707, 7 ...
''D-ABHM'' (1985-1996)
*
Airbus A319-100 ''D-AILK'' (1997-2001)
*
Airbus A330-300 ''D-AIKE'' (2007-2021)
Notable hostages
*
Horst-Gregorio Canellas, German football official responsible for breaking the
1971 Bundesliga scandal
The Bundesliga scandal (''der Bundesliga-Skandal'') refers to the malicious, for-profit manipulation of games in the 1970–71 German football championship season.
History
The manipulation of games was revealed when the president of Kickers O ...
was one of the hostages on board, along with his daughter.
In popular culture
The song "122 Hours of Fear" by
The Screamers
The Screamers were an American electropunk group founded in 1975. They were among the first wave of the L.A. punk rock scene. The Los Angeles Times applied the label "techno-punk" to the band in 1978. In the documentary '' Punk: Attitude'' (2 ...
, recorded in 1978, was inspired by the hijacking.
The song "RAF" by
Brian Eno
Brian Peter George St John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno (; born Brian Peter George Eno, 15 May 1948) is a British musician, composer, record producer and visual artist best known for his contributions to ambient music and work in rock, pop an ...
and
Snatch (
Judy Nylon and
Patti Palladin) was created using sound elements from a
Baader Meinhof ransom message available by public telephone at the time of the hijacking.
The hijacking and the hostage rescue operation were portrayed in two German television films: ' in 1997 and ''
Mogadischu'', directed by
Roland Suso Richter
Roland Suso Richter (born January 7, 1961 in Marburg) is a German film director and producer.
Biography
Richter was born in Marburg and lived there until making his Abitur in 1980 at the local Elisabethschule. Wanting to pursue a film career, ...
, in 2008.
The hijacking and rescue were also portrayed in the ''Black Ops'' television series, season 2 episode 76, titled "Operation Fire Magic".
The 2015 video game ''
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege
''Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege'' is an online tactical shooter video game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It was released worldwide for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on December 1, 2015; the game w ...
'' used Lufthansa Flight 181, along with other historical hostage extraction operations, as inspiration for the game and as research for making the game more accurate.
The hijacking and rescue were also a subplot device in the 2018 film ''
Suspiria.''
See also
*
Operation Entebbe
Operation Entebbe, also known as the Entebbe Raid or Operation Thunderbolt, was a counter-terrorist hostage-rescue mission carried out by commandos of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) at Entebbe Airport in Uganda on 4 July 1976.
A week ...
*
List of hostage crises
This is a list of notable hostage crises by date.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:List Of Hostage Crises
+
Hostage crises ...
References
Further reading
*McNab, Chris. ''Storming Flight 181 – GSG 9 and the Mogadishu Hijack 1977'' Osprey Raid Series No. 19; Osprey Publishing, 2011. .
*Davies, Barry. ''Fire Magic – Hijack at Mogadishu'' Bloomsbury Publishing, 1994. .
*Blumenau, Bernhard. ''The United Nations and Terrorism. Germany, Multilateralism, and Antiterrorism Efforts in the 1970s'' Palgrave Macmillan, 2014, ch. 2. .
External links
Mogadischuat the
Internet Movie Database
IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...
Documentary about the GSG9
*
{{Authority control
Accidents and incidents involving the Boeing 737 Original
Airborne operations
Aircraft hijackings
Attacks on aircraft by Palestinian militant groups
Aviation accidents and incidents in Somalia
Aviation accidents and incidents in 1977
Aviation accidents and incidents in international airspace
Deaths by firearm in Somalia
Deaths by firearm in Yemen
GSG 9
Homicide
Hostage taking
181
Year 181 ( CLXXXI) 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 Aurelius and Burrus (or, less frequently, year 934 ''Ab urbe condit ...
Operations involving German special forces
Palestinian terrorist incidents in Europe
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
Red Army Faction
Terrorist incidents in Europe in 1977
1977 crimes in Germany
1977 in Germany
1977 in Somalia
20th century in Mogadishu
October 1977 events in Africa
Terrorist incidents in Africa in 1977
Terrorist incidents in Somalia in the 1970s
1970s murders in Somalia
1977 murders in Africa
1970s crimes in Somalia
1977 disasters in Somalia