Lufthansa flight 649

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Lufthansa flight 649
Boeing 747-230B D-ABYD FRA 06/30/72.jpg

The hijacked Boeing 747 at Frankfurt Airport , June 1972

Accident summary
Accident type kidnapping
place Yemen SouthPeople's Democratic Republic of Yemen Aden airport
date February 22-23, 1972
Fatalities 0
Survivors 192
Aircraft
Aircraft type Boeing 747-200
operator Lufthansa
Mark D-ABYD
Departure airport JapanJapan Tokyo Haneda Airport
Destination airport GermanyGermany Frankfurt am Main airport
Passengers 177
crew 15th
Lists of aviation accidents

February 22, 1972 one was Boeing 747-200 of Lufthansa with baptismal name the " Baden-Württemberg " of Palestinian kidnapped terrorists on the flight 649 from Delhi to Athens. After the West German government paid a ransom of US $ 5 million, all hostages on board were released the following day.

The abduction

Lufthansa flight 649 ran from Tokyo via Hong Kong , Bangkok , Delhi and Athens to Frankfurt . On Tuesday, February 22, 1972, the Boeing 747-200 ( aircraft registration D-ABYD) was kidnapped on the section from Delhi to Athens by five terrorists armed with pistols and explosives. The hijacking began around 1 p.m. local time, half an hour after the plane with 172 other passengers and 15 crew members took off from Delhi for Athens.

The attackers pretended to be members of the "Organization for Resisting Zionist Persecution". Subsequent examinations revealed that the operation was controlled by the PFLP . Two of the terrorists had boarded the aircraft in Bangkok and Delhi, while the fifth terrorist had already boarded in Hong Kong.

First, the kidnappers ordered the jumbo jet to land on an unpaved runway in the Arabian desert . After the crew judged such a maneuver to be too risky, the Palestinians instead agreed to a landing at Aden Airport in what was then the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen . After landing there, all women and children as well as a stewardess were released.

A few hours after the hijacking began, the hijackers announced their demand: The plane would be blown up the next morning at around 9 a.m. local time, unless a ransom of $ 5 million had been paid by then. According to the ransom note, the handover should take place near Beirut . The West German government (at the time of the kidnapping, 80% of Lufthansa’s capital was publicly owned ) decided to fully respond to the extortion’s demands without further negotiations.

After the kidnappers were informed of the receipt of the ransom on February 23, the male passengers, including the then 19-year-old Joseph P. Kennedy , were released and were able to board a Lufthansa Boeing 707 that was flown in for this purpose . However, the Boeing 707 had to remain on the ground for another three hours before take-off.

The 14 remaining members of the crew were held hostage in Baden-Württemberg until the evening . Although the exact amount of the ransom payment should initially be kept under lock and key. a. In order to avoid copycat actions, it was announced by the then Federal Transport Minister Georg Leber just two days after the hostages were freed. According to IATA , this sum was the highest ransom payment that had ever been made for an aircraft at the time.

Consequences and political background

The hijacked plane after it was sold to Korean Air at Los Angeles Airport in 1981

After the abduction was over, the hostage takers surrendered to the local authorities. On February 27, however, they were released without charge, presumably against payment of a million US dollars from the ransom. The perpetrators could never be identified beyond doubt. The remaining ransom may have been used by the PFLP in support of its Japanese allies in carrying out the massacre at Lod Airport , which occurred less than a month later on May 30, 1972.

The kidnapping of Baden-Württemberg marks the beginning of a series of Palestinian attacks that hit the Federal Republic of Germany in 1972. The events culminated in the crisis during the Munich Olympics and the later hijacking of the Lufthansa plane “Kiel” on October 29, 1972 (flight 615).

Israel accused the West German government of capitulating to terrorism by fulfilling the demands. This allegation and the claim that the West German government pursuing a policy of appeasement in the Middle East conflict , was one of the reasons for the changed approach to the kidnapping of the "Landshut" 1977: Instead of negotiating with the kidnappers, there was a storming of the hijacked plane in Mogadishu by the GSG 9 . The latter was founded in response to the experience of 1972.

Individual evidence

  1. Harro Ranter: ASN Aircraft accident Boeing 747-230B D-ABYD Aden. Retrieved January 4, 2020 .
  2. 1972: Hijackers surrender and free Lufthansa crew . February 23, 1972 ( bbc.co.uk [accessed January 4, 2020]).
  3. a b Hijackers hold 127 on jet . In: Canberra Times (ACT: 1926-1995) . ACT February 23, 1972, p. 1 ( gov.au [accessed January 4, 2020]).
  4. a b c From a Special Correspondent: From the archive, February 26, 1972: Bonn paid $ 5M jet ransom . In: The Guardian . February 26, 2011, ISSN  0261-3077 ( theguardian.com [accessed January 4, 2020]).
  5. a b JUMBO ABDUCTION: New Desires . In: Spiegel Online . tape February 10 , 1972 ( spiegel.de [accessed January 4, 2020]).
  6. HIJACK 'Constant threats to destroy jumbo' . In: Canberra Times (ACT: 1926-1995) . ACT February 24, 1972, p. 5 ( gov.au [accessed January 4, 2020]).
  7. MIDDLE EAST: White circle . In: Spiegel Online . tape June 24 , 1972 ( spiegel.de [accessed January 4, 2020]).
  8. ^ Israel in Shock as Munich Killers Freed . In: Haaretz . November 4, 2010 ( Haaretz.com [accessed January 4, 2020]).
  9. Felix Bohr, Gunther Latsch, Klaus Wiegrefe: TIME HISTORY: "Bad blood" . In: Spiegel Online . tape 35 , August 27, 2012 ( spiegel.de [accessed January 6, 2020]).