TWA Flight 847

All times are in Algiers time unless otherwise noted Flight 847 was operated with a Boeing 727–200, registration The flight originated in Cairo on the morning of June 14. Day one (June 14) After an uneventful flight from Cairo to Athens, a new crew boarded Flight 847. The new crew in Athens consisted of Captain John Testrake, First Officer Phil Maresca, Flight Engineer Christian Zimmerman, flight service manager Uli Derickson, and flight attendants Judy Cox, Hazel Hesp, Elizabeth Howes, and Helen Sheahan. ==== 10:10 a.m. (EET) ==== Flight 847 departed Athens for Rome as scheduled. It was hijacked soon after takeoff by two Arabic-speaking Lebanese men who had smuggled a pistol and two grenades through the Athens airport security. One was later identified as Mohammed Ali Hammadi, a member of Hezbollah. The hijackers assaulted flight service manager Derickson, dragged her by her hair, breached the cockpit, then proceeded to attack and pistol-whip Testrake, Maresca, and Zimmerman. While still in Greek airspace and with Captain Testrake being held at gunpoint, the hijackers forced the airplane to divert from its original destination of Rome towards the Middle East. 11:55 a.m. (EET) The hijacked plane made its first stop at the Beirut International Airport in Lebanon. At the time, Lebanon was in the midst of the Lebanese Civil War, and Beirut was divided into sectors controlled by different Shia Amal militia and Hezbollah. They remained in Beirut for several hours. Nineteen passengers were allowed to leave in exchange for fuel. The aircraft departed Beirut at 1:30 p.m. • Release of all 766 (mainly Lebanese) Shias who had been transferred to Israel's Atleat Prison, in conjunction with immediate withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon. • International condemnation of Israel and the United States. During the stopover, seven American passengers, alleged to have Jewish-sounding surnames, were forced to deplane. They were taken to a Shia prison in Beirut, while an additional 12 terrorists boarded the flight. The airplane departed Beirut again at 5:40 a.m. with 119 people on board (97 passengers, 8 crew members, 14 terrorists). There is some discrepancy between sources as to when the Stethem incident occurred, with some sources indicating it took place during the first stop in Beirut, while others suggested it had occurred during the second. Overall, more reliable sources seem to agree the murder took place during the second stop. 7:50 a.m. (CET) Flight 847 returned to Algiers and stayed there for the next 25 hours. The terrorists released three hostages from the aircraft shortly after landing. Algerian officials then boarded the plane to begin negotiations with the terrorists. The Greek government released an accomplice to the hijackers, Ali Atwa, who was flown to Algiers and joined other terrorists on the plane. In exchange, the hijackers released eight Greek citizens, including Greek popular singer Demis Roussos, who were then flown on a Greek government business jet from Algiers back to Athens. After further negotiations, another 58 hostages (53 passengers and all 5 female cabin crew members) were released in Algiers. The intervention involved a settlement negotiated by Abraham Sofaer, the Legal Advisor to Reagan's State Department, in which the hostages were released in exchange for Israeli release of Lebanese prisoners. Sofaer argued that this action did not constitute acquiescence to the terrorist's demands because the U.S had objected to Israel’s imprisonment of Lebanese prisoners prior to the incident. The released hostages then met with international journalists and were driven to Syria by the International Red Cross. They held a press conference at the Sheraton Hotel in Damascus. The hostages then boarded a U.S. Air Force C-141B Starlifter cargo plane and flew to Rhein-Main AB, Hesse, West Germany, where they were met by U.S. Vice President George H. W. Bush, debriefed, given medical examinations, then flown to Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, and welcomed home by President Reagan. Over the following several weeks, Israel released over 700 Shia prisoners, while maintaining that the prisoners' release was not related to the hijacking. == Aftermath ==

A famous image of this hijacking was a photograph showing a gun being held near Captain Testrake, sticking out of the cockpit window, while he and the other pilots were being interviewed by ABC News reporter Charles Glass. The scene was interrupted by one of the French-speaking Hezbollah guards left by the hijackers to hold the crew after most passengers and the cabin crew had been released in Algiers, and the remaining men were held in captivity elsewhere in Beirut. The young militiaman may have unloaded the gun before entering the scene, as he primarily wanted to be on television. Flight attendant Uli Derickson was credited with calming one of the hijackers during a fuel-quantity incident during the first leg to Beirut, because she spoke German, the only European language which either hijacker spoke. Notably, she interrupted an attempt to end the hijacking in Algiers when airport officials refused to refuel the plane without payment by offering her own Shell Oil credit card, which was used to charge about $5,500 for 22,700 L (6,000 gal) of jet fuel, for which she was reimbursed. She also refused to cooperate with the hijackers in identifying for them the passports of any passengers with Jewish-sounding names so they could not be singled out. , an commissioned in 1995, was named in memory of Robert Stethem. The aircraft involved in the hijacking was put back into service. It remained in service for TWA until the aircraft was retired on September 30, 2000. It ceremoniously operated the airline's final revenue flight of their Boeing 727 fleet. Alleged perpetrators Hezbollah specialist Magnus Ranstorp of the University of St Andrews credits "leading" Hezbollah members Hassan Izz-Al-Din (later involved with the Kuwait Airways Flight 422 hijacking in 1988) and Mohammed Ali Hammadi, whose brother was one of the commanders of the Hezbollah Special Security Apparatus, with assisting Hezbollah operatives in the "supervision and planning of the incident itself and as an active participant in the defusion and resolution". There has been speculation that his parole was granted as part of a covert prisoner swap, in exchange for the release of Susanne Osthoff. Taken hostage in Iraq a month prior, Osthoff was released the week of Hammadi's parole. On February 14, 2006 the United States formally asked the Lebanese government to extradite Mohammed Ali Hammadi for Stethem's murder. On February 24, 2006, he appeared as well on the FBI Most Wanted Terrorists list, with the name Mohammed Ali "Hamadei" (sic). He was among the second group of indicted fugitives to be named by the FBI to the list. Imad Mughniyeh was assassinated on the night of 12 February 2008 by a car bomb explosion in Syria on February 13, 2008. The remaining three fugitives from TWA Flight 847 remain on the list, and at large. On September 19, 2019, Greek police arrested a 65-year-old Lebanese man who was accused of involvement in the hijacking. The man was arrested at Mykonos during a passport check for cruise ship passengers. He was aboard a cruise ship that had crossed Rhodes, Santorini and Mykonos. Mykonos was the last stop before returning to Turkey. He was later released after police determined it was a case of mistaken identity. Hezbollah reportedly denies culpability in the TWA Flight 847 hijacking, among its denials of numerous other attacks that have been attributed to the group. ==Film==

• The Delta Force film of 1986 is based on the TWA 847 hijacking. • The Taking of Flight 847: The Uli Derickson Story is a 1988 TV movie based on the incident focusing on the role of flight attendant Uli Derickson (played by Lindsay Wagner). ==See also==