HIJACKING OF TWA FLIGHT 847

WHO, WHERE, WHEN?

• Who: (one dozen)Shiite Hezbollah terrorists, 153 passengers and crew that were mostly Americans
• When: June 14 to June 30, 1985
• Where: On a plane heading from Athens to Rome

HOW IT WENT DOWN

• Armed terrorists (pistol&grenades) took control of the plane forcing the pilot to fly to Beirut for fuel (let most of the women and children off the plane here)
• After filling up, flew to Algiers (neutral country where no body was going to attack them) issued their demands and let more passengers off and flew back to Beirut
• When the plane landed in Beirut, a passenger was shot in the head and the gunman restated their threat and demands and took off to Algiers again..an accomplice was captured and traded for passengers

HOW IT ENDED

• Flying back to Beirut, they freed all the passengers with Jewish sounding names sending one with a message for President Reagan to refrain from any direct military action
• They put their terrorists militia on alert sealing off the airport...40 hostages are still held captive
• "If any action is taken to rescue them, they(hostages) will all be dead men" stated by the pilot
• The hijackers supporters storm on to the runway chanting "Death to America, death to Israel"
• In a negotiation, the remaining hostages were transferred to Damascus where they would be set free as long as militia wouldn't retaliate and the 700 some prisoners were set free.

RESULT

• Successful negotiations between the Shiite Hezbollah terrorists and American officials, led to the release of the hostages.
• The 700 Shia prisoners were released, however, Israel claims that it was not related to the hijacking
• Only one passenger died (navy seals diver)

WHY IT HAPPENED?

• The terrorists had a list of demands, which included the release of those involved in the 1983 bombing of U.S. Embassy Beirut.
• They wanted the 700 prisoners that were being held captive in Israel.
• The terrorists quarantined the passengers with Jewish sounding names, because Judaism was a major religion in Israel where the prisoners were being held captive.

WORKS CITED

• http://www.history.com/
• content.time.com/
• www.washingtonpost.com