Barry Shaw is with the Israel Institute for Strategic Studies. He is author of Israel Reclaiming the Narrative. Fighting Hamas, BDS, and Anti-Semitism. BDS for Idiots. 1917 From Palestine to the Land of Israel, A Tale of Love and Destiny. His substack is The View from Israel.
Palestinian Arab militant groups carried out 28 recorded aircraft hijackings and attacks between 1968 and 1996, primarily using the tactic to draw global attention to their cause and force the release of imprisoned terrorists.
On July 23, 1968, members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) hijacked El Al Flight 426 from Rome to Tel Aviv, diverting it to Algiers. This marked the first politically motivated aviation hijacking in history and initiated a wave of similar attacks.
December 26, 1968: The El Al Flight 253 attack was an attack on a grounded plane in Athens by the PFLP. Two Palestinians, Mahmoud Mohammad Issa Mohammad and Naheb H. Suleiman, opened fire with submachine guns and hand grenades while the plane was preparing for takeoff. One male passenger was killed, and two female passengers were injured. Both terrorists survived.
February 18, 1969: El Al Flight 432, A Boeing 720 on a stopover from Amsterdam to Tel Aviv via Zürich, was attacked on the ground in Zurich International Airport. Four armed Palestinians from PFLP attacked the aircraft with AK-47 rifles and grenades. The leader of the terrorists were killed by an armed Israeli security guard onboard the aircraft. One crew member was shot and later died of his wounds, and several passengers were injured.
August 29, 1969: TWA Flight 840 was a Trans World Airlines flight from Leonardo da Vinci International Airport in Rome, Italy, to Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel, that was hijacked on 29 August 1969 by two members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). There were no fatalities, although the aircraft was significantly damaged, and two hostages were held for two months.
February 21, 1970: Swissair Flight 330 from Zurich-Kloten Airport to Kai Tak Airport, British Hong Kong, via Tel Aviv-Lod International Airport, crashed nine minutes after take-off when a bomb exploded. The attackers have never been conclusively identified, but have been alleged to have been members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command (PFLP-GC). All 38 passengers and 9 crew were killed. The same day another bomb exploded aboard an Austrian Airlines Caravelle bound for Vienna. The Austrian Airlines plane landed safely.
July 22, 1970: Olympic Airways Flight 255, six PFLP terrorists hijacked a Boeing 727 out of Athens, Greece to Beirut, Lebanon. Greek authorities complied with the hijackers' demands and released seven Palestinian Arab terrorists.
In September 1970, the PFLP coordinated the simultaneous hijackings of multiple international airliners, flying three of them (belonging to TWA, Swissair, and BOAC) to a remote desert airstrip in Jordan known as Dawson’s Field. After releasing most of the 300+ hostages, the PFLP blew up the empty aircraft, triggering the Black September crisis in Jordan. This became the name of yet another Palestinian Arab terror unit.
September 6, 1970: As part of the Dawson's Field hijackings by PFLP members, the hijacking of El Al Flight 219 from Amsterdam (a Boeing 707) was foiled: hijacker Patrick Argüello was shot and killed, and his partner Leila Khaled was subdued and turned over to British authorities in London.
As part of the Dawson's Field hijackings by PFLP members, two hijackers who were prevented from boarding the El Al flight, hijacked Pan Am Flight 93, a Boeing 747, instead diverting the large plane first to Beirut and then to Cairo, rather than to the small Jordanian airstrip.
February 22, 1972: Lufthansa Flight 649, a Boeing 747-200 from Tokyo to Frankfurt, was hijacked by a group commandeered by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) during the Delhi-Athens leg and forced to divert to Aden, where all 182 passengers and crew were released the next day in exchange for a $5 million ransom.
May 8, 1972: Four members of the Black September Organization hijacked a Sabena flight to Lod Airport (now Ben Gurion Airport) in Israel, demanding the release of imprisoned Palestinian Arabs. Israeli Sayeret Matkal commandos, disguised as maintenance technicians led by Ehud Barak, stormed the aircraft and rescued the hostages, Israel's current Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, then a fighter in an elite commando unit participated in the raid into the plane, was shot and still carries the scar of this operation on his face.
Two of the hijackers were killed along with one female passenger.
October 29, 1972: Lufthansa Flight 615, a Boeing 727, from Beirut to Frankfurt, piloted by Capt. Walter Claussen, was hijacked by three men and flown to Zagreb, asking for the liberation of the three surviving perpetrators of the Munich Massacre on 5 September that year. After boarding the three liberated men, the plane was redirected to Tripoli, Libya where all hostages were finally released.
July 20, 1973: Japan Airlines Flight 404 was a Boeing 747-246B hijacked just after takeoff from Schiphol Airport en route to Tokyo. The hijackers were four Palestinian Arabs associated with Wadie Haddad, leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - External Operations (PFLP-GC) and a member of the Japanese Red Army.[38] The plane flew to Dubai, then Damascus before ending in Libya. All passengers and crew were released after 89 hours, but the aircraft was destroyed on the ground in Benghazi, Libya.
October 18, 1973: Danielle Cravenne, the second wife of French film producer Georges Cravenne, was shot dead by a police sniper at Marignane airport. Danielle, who was mentally unstable, had tried to hijack 1973 Paris-Nice flight to protest against the release of the film The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob which was being promoted by Cravenne and which she considered "anti-Palestinian", especially in the midst of the Yom Kippur War.
November 25, 1973: A KLM Boeing 747, "Mississippi", was hijacked by three young Arabs over Iraqi airspace on a scheduled Amsterdam-Tokyo flight with 247 passengers on board. After the hijackers threatened to blow up the plane when no country would grant landing permission, the plane landed in Malta. Most of the passengers and the eight flight attendants were released after negotiations with the Maltese PM Dom Mintoff who argued with the hijackers that the plane could not possibly take off with both the passengers and the 27,000 gallons of fuel they had demanded, given the (then) short runway. With 11 passengers on board, the jumbo jet left Malta to Dubai where the incident ended without fatalities.
December 17, 1973: 1973 Rome airport attacks and hijacking. Five heavily armed Palestinian Arab members of PLO invaded Rome-Fiumicino Airport and killed two people while making their way to Pan Am Flight 110 which was preparing to leave the gate. The destroyed the airplane and killed 30 passengers and crew. Then they hijacked Lufthansa Flight 303 and flew to Athens where one passenger was killed. They refueled and flew on to Damascus in Syria, where they again refueled. The final stop was Kuwait where all hostages was released, after the terrorists negotiated a free passage for themselves.
Israel September 8, 1974: TWA Flight 841 (1974) from Tel Aviv-Lod International Airport to New York City via Athens and Rome, crashed into the Ionian Sea killing all 88 passengers and crew. The cause of the crash was a bomb in the cargo hold, believed to have been planted by the "National Arab Youth Organization for the Liberation of Palestine", a group associated with the Abu Nidal Organization.
June 27,1976: An Air France flight from Tel Aviv to Paris was hijacked and diverted to Entebbe, Uganda, by PFLP and German Revolutionary Cells militants. Israeli commandos carried out a rescue operation, freeing the hostages. Yoni Netanyahu, who led the raid to the terminal, was shot and killed as he led his men to the terminal building.
October 13, 1977: Lufthansa Flight 181 (also known as the Landshut) was hijacked by Palestinian hijackers on a flight from Palma de Mallorca to Frankfurt. The ordeal ended in Mogadishu, Somalia when GSG 9 commandos stormed the plane. Three hijackers were killed and 86 hostages were freed. The pilot was killed before the raid. The hand of West Germany's Red Army Faction was suspected.
August 11, 1982: Pan Am Flight 830 was en route to Los Angeles, California via Hawaii when a bomb planted on the aircraft exploded. The bomb had been planted by Mohammed Rashed, a Jordanian-born Palestinian Arab linked to the 15 May Organization. One passenger was killed by the blast, but the pilot was able to land the plane safely at Honolulu International Airport.The bomber spent more than 20 years in prison, and was released in 2016.
September 23, 1983: Gulf Air Flight 771 blew up in mid-flight after a bomb exploded in the baggage compartment. The plane was en route from Karachi to Abu Dhabi. 112 passengers and crew died. The bomb was planted by the militant Palestinian Arab Abu Nidal Organization in an attempt to pressure Saudi Arabia to pay protection money to avoid attacks on their own soil.
November 23, 1985: Three Palestinian Arab members of the Abu Nidal Organization hijacked EgyptAir Flight 648 on its Athens to Cairo route, and demanded that it fly to Malta. All together, 60 people died, most of them when Egyptian commandos stormed the aircraft.
April 2, 1986: On TWA Flight 840, a Boeing 727-231 from Los Angeles to Cairo, via New York City, Rome and Athens, a bomb exploded shortly before landing in Athens. It blasted a hole in the airplane's starboard side and four passengers died after being blown out. The aircraft made a successful emergency landing. A group called Izzeddin Qassam unit of the Arab Revolutionary Cells, linked to the Palestinian Arab Abu Nidal Organization, claimed responsibility.
September 5, 1986: 22 people were killed when Pakistani security forces stormed Pan Am Flight 73, a Boeing 747-121 carrying 360 passengers and crew, at Karachi after a 16-hour siege. The flight was en route to Frankfurt from Mumbai, India, when the flight was hijacked on the ground in Karachi by four armed terrorists of the Abu Nidal Organization. In 2023, the movie Hijacked: Flight 73, based on this hijacking, was released.
September 3, 1996: A Tupolev Tu-154 operating as Hemus Air Flight 7081 was hijacked by the Palestinian Arab Hazem Salah Abdallah, flying from Beirut to Varna. The hijacker demanded that the aircraft be refueled and given passage to Oslo, Norway after landing at Varna Airport. All of the 150 passengers were freed at Varna; afterwards the crew continued the flight to Oslo, where the hijacker surrendered and asked for political asylum.
The Palestinian Arabs and those who sympathize with them have a unique hold on plane hijackings.
Although the attempted Fly Dubai hijacking of a plane from the UAE to Israel today, 30 September 2026 was undertaken by an Islamic airline pilot, it was inspired by the Palestinian Arab aerial history of death targeting Israelis and Jews.