HIJACKING SUCCESS Guerrillas rejoice over freed men

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33061, 31 October 1972, Page 17

HIJACKING SUCCESS Guerrillas rejoice over freed men

(N.Z.P A.-Reuter—Copyright)

CAIRO, October 30.

Arab guerrillas today rejoiced over the daring plane hijacking which allowed the “Black September” commandos to make good their promise to free three comrades gaoled for the Munich Olympics massacre.

The three guerrillas, and the two hijackers who seized a West German airliner to win their release, flew in last night to Tripoli, Libya—the Arab capital where they were most likely to receive a hero’s welcome.

Tripoli also has the advantage of being far enough from Israel to help stave off an Israeli counter-blow and was the scene of a big martyrs funeral last month for five fellow commandos killed in the bloodshed at the Olympics—in which 11 Israeli sportsmen were killed.

The two hijackers got off the Lufthansa Boeing 727 at Tripoli airport wearing linen strips as masks, and photographers were kept away from them—presumably to prevent Israeli intelligence from learning their identities. They had commandeered the plane, carrying 11 other passengers and seven crew, shortly after take-off from Beirut to Turkey yesterday morning.

After several hasty changes in destination, the plane was diverted to Zagreb, Jugoslavia, where the commandos threatened to blow it up unless their comrades in Munich were freed. Israel appealed to West Germany not to give in, but West Germany flew the three gaoled commandos to rainswept Zagreb airport in an executive jet. During one tense period, both the hijacked Boeing and the jet with the three Arabs circled while radio negotiations took place.

The executive jet landed first and the airliner, almost out of fuel, came down shortly after. When Jugoslav officials tried to stop the Boeing from refuelling, the commandos—who were armed with grenades—threatened to set the plane on fire.

Finally, the plane took off and headed south for Libya —with the passengers, including a Briton, an American, a Spaniard, and a German, and seven crew still aboard.

When it landed at Tripoli, the masked hijackers were whisked away by car but the three released commandos were taken to an airport room with a leading Libyan official and the representative of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (P.L.0.) in Libya.

The hostage passengers and crew finally disembarked and decided to spend the night at a Tripoli hotel, the Middle East News Agency said.

The agency quoted the

I West German Ambassador as | saying that the passengers (were in good condition and had elected to stay the night as guests of Libyan Airlines. He also said that he was extremely satisfied with the quiet, efficient, and concerned manner with which Libyan authorities had handled the situation. In Germany, a Lufthansa spokesman said that a plane was leaving Frankfurt for Tripoli this morning with a

relief crew and mechanics to check and refuel the hijacked Boeing and fly it back to Frankfurt with those passengers who wished to go along. The three freed commandos — Samer Abdalla, Ibrahim Badran and Abdel Kader el Denawi—had been due to stand trial for the Munich attack last month in which the 11 Israelis, their five comrades and a German policeman died.