El - Al flight 426 hijacking presentation.

1. EL AL FLIGHT 426
Prepared by Esra KURTULUŞ

2. INTRODUCTION
Date : July 23, 1968
Aircraft Type : Boing 707
Operator : El AL
Flight Origin : London Heathrow Airport
Stopover : Rome- Leonardo da Vinci – Fiumicino Airport
Destination : Lod Airport (renamed Ben Gurion International
Airport)
Passenger : 51 (including 3 hijackers
Crew : 10
Fatalities: 0
Survivors: 61 (include 3 hijackers)
Summary : 1968 July 23rd. - from Rome, Italy to Algiers, Algeria: an
El Al Boeing 707, flight 426 from Rome, Italy to Tel Aviv, Israel with
48 people aboard (38 passengers, 10 crew) was commandeered to
Algiers by three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of
Palestine (PFLP). The Israeli nationals (22) were held by Algerian
authorities, but released within the next five weeks; no casualties.
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3. ◦ Flight 426, a Boeing 707, had originally been scheduled to depart
Rome on the afternoon of July 22. Engine problems with the aircraft,
however, required a replacement plane, and that only arrived at
Leonardo da Vinci airport from Tel Aviv in the late evening. By the
time the return flight to Tel Aviv took off, it was already after
midnight, and there were only 38 passengers on board – seven of
them El Al employees or their family members – in addition to a crew
of 10. Four of them were in the cockpit: chief pilot Oded Abarbanell,
flight engineer Yonah Lichtman, training pilot Avner Slapak and first
officer Maoz Poraz.
ROME

4. One of the hijackers opened the unlocked door to the flight
deck, clubbed the copilot with the butt of his pistol and ordered
the plane to fly to Algiers. The other two hijackers threatened
the passengers with pistols and hand grenades.
The three hijackers on Flight 426 were members of the Popular
Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Marxist terror
organization founded a year earlier by George Habash. This
was the first of the PFLP’s actions against an airline, though in
the years that immediately followed, it carried out numerous
armed attacks on El Al and other international carriers.
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5. When the plane landed at Dar El Beida, Algerian authorities impounded the plane.
The following day they sent all ;
◦non-Israeli passengers to France on Air Algérie Caravelle jets.
◦Ten women and children were released over the weekend.
The remaining 12 Israeli passengers, and the crew of 10 were held as hostages for
the remainder of the hijacking.
The hijackers were identified as members of the Jordan-based Popular Front for
the Liberation of Palestine. They were equipped with Iranian and Indian passports.
The hijackers were carefully chosen by the PFLP because of their occupations (a
pilot, a colonel in the Palestinian army, and a karate teacher).
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6. “
“Terrorism went global on July 23,
1968, the day [the Popular Front for
the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)]
hijacked an El Al flight en route from
Rome to Tel Aviv. That set off a
wave of hijackings and airport
shootouts. 'When we hijack a plane it
has more effect than if we killed a
hundred Israelis in battle,’ said [PFLP
leader] George Habash. 'At least the
world is talking about us now.’”
—Terrorism expert Bruce Hoffman,
quoted in The New York Times, Nov.
1, 1998
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7. The Israeli and Algerian governments negotiated the return of
the hostages and plane through diplomatic channels. Five
weeks later, everyone was released in exchange for 16
convicted Arab prisoners. According to the BBC, lasting 40
days, it was the longest hijacking of a commercial flight.
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8. 8
The hijacked El Al
Flight 426 after its safe
return to Israel

9. The Al-El Air flight 426 hijacked by the Popular Front for the Liberation of
Palestine (PFLP) was a turning point in civil aviation security. (23 July
1968) The reasons for this can be listed as follows:
o The hijacking of the Al El flight 426 by Palestinian organization is the
first terrorist attack on civil aviation. This action is considered as the
beginning of International Terrorism by many experts .
o Al El flight 426 is the first and only commercial airplane hijacking
action carried out successfully.
o The success of Palestinian organization not only to hijacking the
plane but also to enable them to announce their voice to a wider
audience.
o FHKC’s wasn’t success in the Arab-Israeli until 1968. but they
achieved this success through hijacking the airplane, and As a result
of the negotiations with Israel, for provision to release of Jewish
passengers, they should The release of 16 Arab prisoners in Israeli
jails.
CONCEQUENCES
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10. In addition, the hijacking of the Al El aircraft has revealed two
important facts in terms of civil aviation security.
◦ First of all, the way the attack is carried out is that the
terrorists can put banned items on the plane without any
obstacles, that has shown how vulnerable civil aviation is
to the terrorist threat. (Metal detectors and x-ray devices,
which are widely used today, have become a standard in
the mid-1970s and have become widely used. In 1968,
terrorists boarded the plane without any scanning.)
◦ Second, the legal infrastructure related to civil aviation
safety and security is inadequate. And judicial proceedings
wasn’t enough about the terrorists who hijack the airplane.
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In fact, one of the terrorists who participated in
this action was back on stage in the airplane
hijacking action against Sabena Airways in 1972,
while another was active in the Lufthansa
airplane hijacking the same year.

12. Thanks!
ANY QUESTIONS?
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