ARABS HIJACK PLANE TO GO TO MUNICH

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33060, 30 October 1972, Page 1

ARABS HIJACK PLANE TO GO TO MUNICH

(N.Z.P.A. -Reuter—Copyright)

NICOSIA, October 29.

Grenade-toting hijackers commandeered a German airliner this morning an d ordered it to Munich in a bid to free gaoled Arab guerrillas involved in the Olympic Games massacre.

The Lufthansa Boeing 727 on a flight from Beirut to Turkey with 13 passengers and a crew of seven, was hijacked over the Mediterranean by at least two people and stopped at Nico sia Airport for an hour.

The hijackers, believed in ' Beirut to be Palestinian commandos, held a grenade to the pilot’s head and demanded that he fly to'

Munich — scene of last month’s Olympic Games massacre that left 17 people dead. Three Arab extremists are

being held in West Germany in connection with the bloodshed, and the hijackers said they wanted to achieve their release, the sources said.

Five other guerrillas were killed during the kidnap attempt, along with 11 Israeli athletes and a German policeman. The kidnapping, carried out by Black September guerrillas, was aimed at forcing the release of Arab prisoners in Israel. Civil aviation sources said the hijackers called themselves “Operation Munich.” One negotiator There was no indication of the number of hijackers, as only one of them conducted negotiations with the Nicosia control tower while the plane was on the ground. He identified himself as a Palestinian commando, and demanded that all communications be addressed to “Operation Munich.” The West German Ambassador to Cyprus, Dr Alexander Torok, went to the airport together with aviation, police and medical officials, but the only contact with the plane was by the staff in the control tower.

The hijacker warned Cypriot authorities that if they attempted to do anything except refuel the plane he would detonate the hand grenade he was carrying. The Arab National Youth Organisation for the Liberation of Palestine has claimed responsibility for the hijacking. , , The claim, made in a handwritten note placed in the letterbox of the A.F.P. office in Beirut, said the plane would be dynamited with all its passengers if there was any attempt at interference. The note, headed, “Military communique, number one,” warned all countries in which the plane was obliged to land against “any attempt at deception, trap or intervention,” and said the organisation would hold the countries responsible for the lives of the passengers and the commandos.

It said: “Clear, precise instructions” had been given to the leader of the group to dynamite the plane if there was any attempt to interfere. It added that the group leader “was qualified to negoiate in the name of the organisation.” “Let Palestine live free and Arab. Long live the Arab nation,” the note concluded.

Later the airliner informed Munich airport that it will land there, an official of Lufthansa Airlines said in Athens. The official said that the plane flew into Greek air space and contacted Athens Airport. Police wait The hijackers informed the tower that the plane was heading to Munich with the aim of liberating the Arab guerrillas. Between 350 and 500 police armed with sub-machine guns were massed on the tarmac of Munich Airport, awaiting the arrival.

A police spokesman in Frankfurt said that the three captured guerrillas had been moved from three separate gaols into the Central Munich Prison when news of the hijack reached Germany.

A Lufthansa spokesman said the plane had stopped over for refuelling in Zagreb. Jugoslavia. The spokesman said Lufthansa had received a radio message from the aircraft demanding the release of the three imprisoned Arabs.

Police in Munich said later they had received a message from the airliner that the hijackers wanted to change its destination from Munich to Salzburg, in Austria. The police spokesman said authorities had radioed the Boeing 727 to tell the hijackers that a landing in Salzburg would delay a handover of the three Arab guerrillas held in Munich, because permission would have to be obtained from Austrian authorities to take the three men across the border. Police said the three Arabs would be transported by helicopter to any airport at which the airliner landed.

An official spokesman said in Munich that the authorities had persuaded the hijackers that Salzburg was not a suitable airport at which to land because of inter-governmental difficulties.

The hijackers then demanded to be taken to the West German airport of Nuremberg, about 100 miles north of Munich.

A police spokesman in Munich said that the three Arabs whose release the

hijackers have demanded were being taken to Munich Airport. In Bonn an emergency operations group was set up by the Government this morning under the chairmanship of the Minister of the Interior, Hans Dietrich Genscher.

It was attended by the Ministers or Deputy Ministers of Defence, Justice, Transport, Finance and the Minister in Charge of Mr Willy Brandt’s Chancellery.