Top 10 Most Dangerous Air Hijackings in the World
Air hijackings is one of the most common ways for terrorists and the
other corrupted section of the society to demand a ransom from the
government or just spread terror among the people and the nation. Though
now air hijackings have come to a meagre standstill, hijacking air
planes was one of the most easiest and convenient ways to spread
terrorism among the people of a nation, or risking the lives of those
hundreds of passengers captured in the air plane Due to the luxury
categorisation of air planes as a means of transport has enabled
terrorists to get indulged into this activity of air plane hijackings
and thus end up risking the lives of a lot of passengers and also
accomplish their motive or goal of spreading terror among the people.
History has seen some of the most deadliest and dangerous air
plane hijackings in different parts of the world. Here is a list of some
of the biggest and terrorising air hijackings done till date.
10. Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961
Way back in the year of 1996 and dated November 23rd,
three Ethiopians had hijacked this plane in order to threaten the
government authorities for a huge ransom. While their flight across the
Indian Ocean, the fuel had almost dropped off in the flight alerting the
pilot for an emergency landing. But on the three hijackers refusing to
make an emergency landing, the flight could not sustain any longer and
went crashing down the Indian Ocean, making it one of the deadliest air
hijacking in the world after the September 2011 attacks. Many passengers
in that airline lost their lives but fortunately a handful of people
were saved by the water divers in the ocean.
9. Iraqi Airways Flight 163
This incident took place in the year 1986, when air plane hijacking was
becoming pretty common in the Middle East in the 1980’s. Air safety was
one of the most important concerns for all the countries existing in the
Middle East as it was the centre for terror attacks. The air safety
came to a standstill when the Iraqi Airways Flight 163, travelling from
Baghdad to Amman with about 90 passengers and almost 15 crew members was
hijacked and controlled by four Hezbollah men. The air safety and
security personnel on trying to peacefully and harmoniously negotiate
with the four hijackers were found to be at a loss as the hijackers were
demanding and they instantly started blowing up the cabin of the flight
with grenades and detonating the cockpit. The airline finally crashed
and destroyed near Arar, Saudi Arabia.
8. Pan Am Flight 73
Just before taking off Karachi to travel Frankfurt, four members of the
terrorist group Abu Nidal Organization hijacked the Pan Am airlines in
the year 1986. They dressed up as Karachi security guards and hijacked
the airline travelling to Frankfurt. Meanwhile, the crew of this airline
managed to sneak out and ground the airlines through an overheard hatch
in the cockpit area. When the hijackers demand for the crew to be back
in the airlines failed and were not met, the hijackers shot dead an
Indian American out of rage and fury. Eventually as the airline was
stranded in the dark, random shooting began and grenade explosions were
being experienced. In this situation, a lot of them were rescued but
unfortunately more than 20 passengers were killed in the hijacking
attack.
7. Egypt Air Flight 648
The hijacking activity which took place on the Egypt Air Flight 648 in
the year of 1985 remains one of the most brutal and fatal air plane
hijacking scenes till today. This airline while travelling on its way
from Athens to Cairo was hijacked and captured by three Palestinian men
of the Abu Nidal organisation. When an Egyptian Security personnel shot
down one of the three hijackers, an exchange of bullets between the
security personnel and the hijackers began, thus leading to the puncture
of the fuselage of the plane. Due to the claustrophobic situation
inside the air plane, the passengers were unable to breathe and thus the
pilot had to descend the air plane in order to allow the passengers to
breathe freely. Also being very low on fuel at that time, the airline
had to land at Malta, very much against the wishes of the Maltese
authorities. There was again a scene of the exchange of bullets and
grenade bombs, leading to a storming explosion of the Egypt Air Flight
648, leading to more than 60 people being killed.
6. Air India Flight 182
This flight was travelling from Canada to India on the 23 June 1985.
While this airline was flying over the Atlantic Ocean, the air plane got
blown up by a secretly planted bomb in the airline, leading to the
flight go straight crashing into the Atlantic Ocean. This incident
remains one of the most impactful an d dangerous air plane hijacking in
the Canadian history as a totally number of 329 people were killed, all
the passengers comprising of 280 Canadians, 22 Indians and about 27
British population. When this air hijack took place, not much was known
of the reason and cause behind this accident. But after almost 20 years
of investigation, it was apparently claimed that this hijack terrorism
was done by a Sikh group staying in Canada.
5. Malaysian Airlines Flight 653
This remains one of the most mysterious and unanswerable air hijackings
in the world. The Malaysian Airlines Flight 653, right after taking off
from Penang to reach Kuala Lumpur reported as an unidentified hijacker
amongst the passengers, and after a few moments this airline started
heading towards Singapore. Gradually all communication between the crew
members and the Air Safety personnel was lost, leading to the Airline
crashing in Kampong Ladang, Tanjong Kupang. This incident saw the death
of more than 90 passengers and crew members. The verified reason of this
hijack was never known, though some believe that some members of the
Japanese Red Army were behind this explosion.
4. Lufthansa Flight 181
Scheduled to travel from Palma De Mallorca to Frankfurt, this Lufthansa
airlines carried about 86 passengers and five crew members. This airline
was hijacked in the year 1977 by four militant Palestinians, who were a
part of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. They called
their group as the ‘Commando Martyr Halime’. One of the men entered the
cockpit and threatened the pilot with a pistol to direct the flight to
Cyprus. In this way, after travelling to Cyprus, Bahrain, Dubai and
Aden, this airline was finally taken into hostile and raided, which saw
the death of two of the hijackers and injuring the others, fortunately
not killing the passengers aboard in that airline.
3. Air France Flight 139
The hijacking of the Air France Flight in the year 1976 is deeply
related to the historical Operation Entebbe. En route from Athens to
Paris, this airline was hijacked by two people of the Popular Front for
the Liberation of Palestine and two others from the German Revolutionary
Cells. The airline was filled with almost 250 passengers and 12 crew
members, which was later then directed to Entebbe Airport, Uganda. On
reaching there, four more hijackers joined the session, demanding the
release of the 40 Palestinians detained in Israel, leading to Operation
Entebbe when a number of Israel soldiers reached the site and ended up
blowing the scene with explosions and gunfire shots, leading to the
death of Ugandan soldiers, three passengers and an Israeli commando.
2. Dawson’s Field Hijackings
This hijacking incident which took place in the year 1970 led to the
historical event known as Black September. In a single day, four air
planes were hijacked by the members of the Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine. All the 300 passengers travelling the airline
were released, except for the Jewish passengers and the flight crew
members. The members of the PFLP blew up the empty airlines, demanding
the release of Patrick Arguello and the detained Leila Khalid. Both of
these were claimed to be working behind the attempt to hijack El Al
Flight 219, and failed to do so and were captured. Thought the
conditions of the PFLP were met, it gave rise to a new and fresh
conflict between the Jordanians and the Palestinians.
1. El Al Flight 426
In the year of 1968 when this airline was travelling from London to
Rome, it was captured by three members of the Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine and the airline was diverted to Algiers. On
reaching there, all the non-Israeli passengers were released and it took
almost about 40 days of negotiation to reach a proper decisive
agreement in relation to this conflict. During that time, the El Al
Flight 426 was the centre and the main hot spot for air hijacking by the
terrorist groups. Since then, strict measure and rules have been
applied keeping this airline’s safety and security issues on mind.
Today, through measure of strict safety guidelines, this airline is one
of the safest around.
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