TWA Flight 355 Hijacking

Shortly after Trans World Airlines Flight 355 left New York's La Guardia Airport on September 10, 1976, Croatian nationalists hijacked the aircraft by displaying what they claimed were “five gelignite bombs.” The Boeing 727's crew and the 81 passengers bound for Chicago followed the hijackers' instructions, unaware that the so-called bombs were in fact made of Silly Putty.

The group of hijackers, led by Croat Zvonko Busic and his American wife, Julienne Busic, a former TWA stewardess, took the plane on a bizarre transatlantic journey. Stopping in Montreal, the hijackers sent word that they had left another bomb and two political tracts in a subway locker at Grand Central Station in Manhattan. They demanded that four U.S. newspapers and the International Herald Tribune publish their appeal for Croatian independence and that leaflets proclaiming their message be air-dropped over New York, Montreal, and Chicago.

Police experts did find an actual bomb in the Grand Central Station locker. After the device was taken to a police range to be disarmed, it exploded unexpectedly, killing New York City police officer Brian J. Murray. The FBI complied with the hijackers' instructions, and sent the Croatian manifesto to the press. The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and Chicago Tribune all published the tract.

Stopping in Newfoundland to refuel, the hijackers allowed 35 passengers to get off the plane, giving first priority to children, the ill, and those with pending business. “They were so polite it was ridiculous,” passenger James Perkins told Newsweek in an article published 10 days after the ordeal.

The hijackers landed the 727 at the Charles de Gaulle Airport outside Paris, where French officials slashed the jet's tires. After Julienne Busic spoke with U.S. ambassador Kenneth Rush and confirmed the publication of the group's manifesto, the hijackers surrendered.

The group freed all of the hostages and revealed that the bombs they carried were fake. They had been smuggled though security with the aid of Julienne Busic's outdated TWA pass.

All five hijackers were flown to the United States and convicted in 1977 in U.S. federal court on charges of air piracy. The Busics were also convicted of homicide, and sentenced to mandatory life terms. Zvonko Busic is serving a life sentence at the federal prison in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. Julienne Busic was paroled from prison in 1989, and was later hired as an adviser at the Croatian embassy in Washington, D.C. She continues to be on federal probation under parole, reporting to a probation officer each month.