TWA Flight 847

On June 14, 1985, two gunmen used hand grenades and a pistol to overpower a commercial jet bound for Rome from Athens. The 153 passengers and crew members aboard Trans World Airlines Flight 847, many of them Americans, were caught in a 16-day showdown as the plane flew back and forth between Beirut and Algiers.

The hijackers, who were later tied to the Shiite Muslim militant group and political party Hezbollah, burst into the cockpit and ordered pilot John Testrake to fly to Algiers. The image of one of the hijackers holding a gun to Testrake's head was shown on TV screens around the world.

The Boeing 727's low fuel supply would take the aircraft only as far as Beirut. There the hijackers refueled and issued their first demands. They called for the release of 766 prisoners in Israel, many of them Shiites, and a moratorium on oil and arms deals between the United States and Arab partners. During this first stop in Beirut, the gunmen shot Petty Officer Robert Dean Stethem at close range and dumped his body onto the tarmac.

[Page 373]Testrake flew the plane back and forth between Beirut and Algiers for the next two and a half days. Other accomplices joined the hijackers as the ordeal progressed. A number of the hostages, many of them women and children, were released sporadically during the plane's several stops. Finally, the flight engineer faked engine failure, and the hijacking exploit was grounded. The plane landed for a final time in Beirut, and hijacking accomplices took the passengers from the plane to guarded houses in the city. The crew members were kept hostage on the grounded plane for the next two weeks, surrounded by gunmen. On June 30, after Israel agreed to release 300 prisoners, the hijackers freed the remaining hostages and flew back to Algiers, avoiding arrest.

Mohammed Ali Hamadei was arrested in 1987 in West Germany and later sentenced by a German court to life in prison for hijacking Flight 847 and murdering Stethem. Hamadei remains the only person tried in the case, although U.S. officials have released the names of other suspects. Imad Fayez Mughniyah, at times described as Hezbollah's senior intelligence officer and at others the group's security or operations chief, was indicted in the case, as was fellow Lebanese Hasan Izz-al-Din. American officials further contend that Mughniyah was involved in the 1983 bombing of U.S. Marine Corps barracks in Beirut as well as the kidnapping, torture, and killing of the CIA station chief William Buckley in the 1980s. Both men are at large.

According to his own admission to Greek authorities, a third man was supposed to take part in the hijacking. Ali Atwa was waiting to board Flight 847 but was relegated to standby, bumped, and left behind. He was arrested in Athens, and found to be carrying forged Moroccan passports. Greek officials later freed him to join those on the hijacked plane in exchange for hostages. Atwa, Izz-al-Din, and Mughniyah all appear on the FBI's list of “most wanted terrorists,” announced in October 2001.