Word: lufthansa
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During the first refueling stop, at Rome, Schumann casually dropped four unlit cigars out the cockpit window. Authorities correctly interpreted this signal to mean that four terrorists were aboard. Other Lufthansa flights were able to contact Charlie Echo and pass along messages from Frankfurt control. Near Greece, a Lufthansa pilot reported that Charlie Echo was preparing to land at Nicosia in Cyprus. Back came an urgent message, "Here is Frankfurt. Establish contact with 181 and let him know that Nicosia-out of order, repeat out of order. He should try for Larnaca or Akrotiri." When the plane touched down...
...Bonn, West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, backed by his Cabinet and by opposition leaders, alerted Grenzschutzgruppe 9 (G.S.G. 9), the elite commando unit of West Germany's Border Protection Force. Thirty members of the unit left immediately for Cyprus aboard a Lufthansa 707, Flight 1231. But Flight 1231, in a near miss, arrived at Larnaca just as Flight 181 was taking off. Flight 1231 flew to Ankara to await further instructions, while the hijacked plane flew on to Bahrain and Dubai...
Throughout the early evening, telephone lines to Europe were open, so the Lufthansa planes were on the air to Frankfurt only for radio checks. But these checks became more and more frequent as the hours passed: from every 30 minutes to 20, then ten and finally two. Shortly after midnight Frankfurt told the planes: "We have lost all telephone and telex connections. You are our only means of communication. Keep in touch...
...variety of machine guns and other automatic weapons. At G.S.G. 9 headquarters in St. Augustin, near Bonn, they study the tactics of terrorist organizations and learn a variety of skills-picking locks, for example, or impersonating airline cabin attendants and mechanics. They specifically train in a wide range of Lufthansa aircraft, including the Boeing 737. Also stressed is an attribute of unusual importance: the ability to maintain a high degree of competence without testing it under battle conditions. Last week's mission involved only eleven minutes of action-after five full years of preparation...
Some students of terrorism believe that Haddad was the mastermind behind the skyjacking of both the JAL plane last month and Lufthansa Flight 181. Even if that is not the case, he has more than enough grim incidents to his discredit, including the 1968 skyjacking of a Rome-Tel Aviv El Al flight and the 1970 skyjacking of four passenger jets, three of which were later blown up in the Jordanian desert. Haddad also planned the 1975 terrorist raid on OPEC headquarters in Vienna, which forced the oil-producing states to pay $25 million to ransom their ministers. The commander...