Ask the Pilot: Remembering TWA flight 847
 

Now in Ask the Pilot: Remembering TWA 847


THIRTY YEARS AGO this week, TWA flight 847 was hijacked on a flight from Athens to Rome.

The plane was commandeered by militiamen from Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad, armed with grenades and pistols. The purloined 727 then embarked on an incredible, 17-day odyssey to Lebanon, Algeria, and back again.

Save for the September 11th attacks, the story of flight 847 stands as the single-most dramatic and unforgettable airliner hijacking in history. Yet most of us have forgotten about it. Younger people have likely never heard of it. Which is why I'm bringing up the anniversary: for the sake of perspective. Our politics and culture have become preoccupied with the specter of terrorism, an obsession that is felt acutely by those of us on the front lines of commercial air travel. Yet ironically, whether because or in spite of this fixation, attacks against civil aviation targets don't happen nearly as often as they used to. Few people know or recall how deadly previous decades were. The 1970s and 1980s in particular were rife with hijackings, bombings, airport shootings and so on.

Maybe this is healthy, to some extent? We can view it, perhaps, as an expression of resilience, a cultural acknowledgment that hey, we all face certain risks, and even the most calamitous front-page tragedies eventually give way to the march of time as people go on living their lives. At the other extreme, we can see it as ignorant, or even dangerous: valuable historical context obliterated by an age of hysterical news coverage and a general hypersensitivity to pretty much everything.

I don't know which of those, if either, is a correct diagnosis, but try to envision, for a moment, the flight 847 saga happening today. Imagine, if you possibly can, how berserk the media would be. Mind you, flight 847 was the third hijacking to occur in the region that week in 1985! Earlier, a Jordanian 707 and a Middle East Airlines 707 had been taken. Those first two had been dramatic enough, but this was a hijacking that the boldest Hollywood script couldn't have improved upon: A U.S. Navy diver named Robert Stethem would be murdered and his body tossed onto the tarmac. Other passengers and crew were beaten multiple times. Passengers were removed, split into groups, and held captive in downtown Beirut, including a group of Jewish passengers eventually freed by U.S. Delta Force soldiers. At the airport in Algiers, one of the flight attendants charged 6000 gallons of jet fuel to her personal credit card after Algerian officials refused to provide fuel without payment. On its third landing in Beirut, the jet nearly ran out of fuel and crashed. The photograph of TWA captain John Testrake, his head out the cockpit window, collared by a gun-wielding terrorist, was broadcast worldwide and became an icon of the siege.

Remarkably, Robert Stethem would be the only fatality. The remaining crew and passengers were eventually let go. The Israeli government later released 700 Shiite prisoners. Though this had been among the hijackers demands, Israel denied any connection.


The full article also includes a look-back at what I call "The Golden Age of Air Crimes." You can read it here...

http://www.askthepilot.com/twa-847/

I remember that day very well... I was young but the memory is still fresh in my mind. I saw that TWA plane going around repeatedly, trying to land at Beirut's airport (flight path back then, even now on some windy days, had planes flying over our building). I remember looking from my bedroom balcony and knowing exactly why this was happening, and I remember telling myself, "Oh no, not again. Please, not again." I remember the news; the "authorities" didn't want that plane to land in Beirut. We had enough on our plate and couldn't deal with another "incident"; we just couldn't. At one point, the airport authorities drove buses and anything and everything they could gather onto the runway; they didn't want that plane to land. Eventually, they had to give in and the plane landed. For days it just sat there. I remember watching the news and seeing the gruesome imagine of a man tossed onto the tarmac and the pilot's head sticking out of the cockpit window while another person held a gun to his head. Those were very difficult images for me to understand, but then again, I lived in a country that had been torn apart by the ravages of civil war. As we say here, may we remember but may those days never be repeated. Sadly, so much of what we went through back then is now being repeated throughout the region... Very unfortunate when we, as human beings, cannot learn from the mistakes of our past... Very unfortunate indeed...

I've flown (TATL) with the purser on that flight. She was very impressive.

I was 11 at the time but remember it well. Hard to think it's been 30 years already.

I had a friend and co-worker who was on that flight. We were both stationed at a small AF base in Italy, and he was returning from California and took the long way home. This was his final leg of the trip. When they took control, they had everybody seated with their heads down between their legs. Fortunately for him, he had a civilian passport, and while bent over was able to sanitize his wallet of any military or government ID. When they got to him, he explained that it was a life-long dream to travel full-circle around the world, and that he was going to vacation in Italy.

There were at least two other military members on that flight besides Robert Stethem; they were both sailors. My friend told me that when they found out that they were from the USS New Jersey they went totally ballistic (the New Jersey had been shelling the hills of Lebanon) and beat these guys mercilessly. When they finally killed him, my friend said they did it so coldly and without remorse; like you and I swatting a mosquito.

Political argumentation/characterizations have been removed. Please take such to the OMNI/PR forum.

cblaisd
Moderator, Travel News

I was in HS at the time, and remember watching in horror as the events unfolded. I cannot imagine.

Yes, sadly, I remember watching the whole terrible episode on television while it happened.

Just one of too many terrorist takeovers of aircraft throughout the years.

Three aircraft blown up in the desert; Idi Amin's "welcoming" the AF flight and its aftermath.

9/11 and the valiant efforts of those on UA 93 after the other flights had caused such death and destruction.

Too many tragedies.....

NEVER FORGET !!!

bj-21.