The German airplane "Landshut," which a Palestinian militant group hijacked and flew to Somalia in 1977, will return to Germany to be restored. The plane's hijacking was a key moment of the so-called "German Autumn."
The decommissioned Boeing 737 airplane that became notorious as the hijacked Lufthansa Flight 181 in 1977 is expected to arrive at the Dornier Museum - an aviation and aerospace museum in southern Germany - in September.
The aircraft had been parked at Fortaleza airport in Brazil gathering dust since 2008. It will be dismantled and transported to Germany before it is restored.
Landshut returns to Germany 40 years after hijacking
Landshut, the Lufthansa plane hijacked by militants linked to the Red Army Faction in 1977, returns to Germany in September. Take a look at the harrowing odyssey passengers and crew had to go through 40 years ago.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
A long-awaited return to Germany
The years haven't been kind to the Landshut, perhaps the most famous Boeing 737-200 in Germany's history. It is currently rusting away at a "cemetery" for airplanes at the Fortaleza International Airport in Brazil. But now officials want to take the plane apart, transport the pieces to Germany and restore it at the Dornier Museum, close to Lake Constance.
Image: Imago/Agencia EFE
The RAF and the German Autumn
The Landshut became famous in 1977's German Autumn: the weeks during which the country was shaken by several terrorist acts committed by the Red Army Faction and allied groups. Four militants from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine hijacked the Lufthansa plane to blackmail the German government into releasing prominent RAF members from prison.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
The odyssey begins
On October 13, 1977, two men and two women revealed the guns and explosives that they had brought onto a tourist flight from Palma de Mallorca, Spain, to Frankfurt. They demanded that the jet fly to Somalia instead, and they called for the release of 11 RAF prisoners - or else they'd blow up all 86 passengers and five crew. The plane's first stop was Rome, where it had to refuel.
Image: picture-alliance/AP
Making it to Dubai
The plane continued on its way and landed to refuel again in Cyprus and - after airports in Damascus, Baghdad and Kuwait denied permission to land - Bahrain. From there, pilot Jürgen Schumann and co-pilot Jürgen Vietor flew the Landshut to Dubai, where it arrived at about 6 a.m. on October 14. In this shot, a negotiator on the ground shows one of the hostage takers that he's unarmed.
Image: picture-alliance/AP
Life-threatening information
The hijackers asked the tower in Dubai to supply water, food and medicine. Captain Schumann was able to communicate the exact number of the hijackers on board to the authorities. But, when Dubai's defense minister revealed the information in an interview, the hostage takers learned about it, too, and threatened to kill Schumann.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Images/H. Koundakjian
A life lost
Germany's GSG 9 anti-terror specialists went to Dubai, but practiced on a different airplane for so long that the Landshut took off before they could intervene. The next stop was Aden, in what was then South Yemen. Because the plane had to land on sandy ground, Schumann (pictured in Dubai) went out to inspect the landing gear - but took too long. Upon his return, a hijacker shot and killed him.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/H. Koundakjian
Dramatic end to the nightmare
The last stop was Mogadishu, Somalia. The hijackers issued an ultimatum for the RAF prisoners to be released and poured the duty-free spirits over the hostages, preparing to blow up the plane, so West German officials pretended to give in. But, instead, the GSG 9 stormed the plane, shot three of the four hijackers and saved all remaining hostages, who returned to Germany on October 18.
Image: picture-alliance/R. Witschel
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"To this day, the rescue of the 'Landshut' is a living symbol of a free society, which cannot be defeated by fear and terror," said Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - assumed to be working with the Red Army Faction (RAF), a far-left insurgent group in West Germany - hijacked the plane in October, 1977. The hijackers' primary demand was the release of 10 imprisoned RAF leaders.
The RAF, which the West German government considered to be a terrorist group, had assassinated Siegfried Buback, the attorney general of West Germany, earlier that year. Industrialist Hanns Martin Schleyer and Jürgen Ponto, the head of the Dresdener Bank, were also kidnapped and murdered. The series of events was later dubbed the "German Autumn."
Tense standoff culminates in special forces rescue
Four PLFP members hijacked Lufthansa Flight 181 from Mallorca to Frankfurt on October 13, 1977. The "Landshut," named after a city in Bavaria, then embarked on a four-day journey through the Arabian Peninsula, stopping in five different cities to refuel.
The hijackers held the 86 passengers and five crew members hostage in an attempt to secure the release of 10 RAF members being held in Stuttgart plus two imprisoned Palestinians in Turkey and $15 million (about 35 million German marks at the time). The plane's captain, Jürgen Schumann, was executed in Aden, a city in southern Yemen.
The Landshut plane sitting on the tarmac in Dubai during its four-day odyssey in October, 1977Image: picture alliance/dpa/nordisk
The plane eventually settled in the Somalian capital of Mogadishu on October 17, 1977. After negotiations with the Somalian government, the German foreign ministry sent the country's elite tactical unit GSG 9 - which had been established five years prior following the hostage crisis at the 1972 Munich Olympics - to retake the plane.
Three of the four hijackers were killed during the ambush, known as Operation Feuerzauber, while one commando and four passengers were injured in the exchange. The German commandos and the 86 "Landshut" passengers then returned to Germany on October 18, 1977.
Passengers of the 'Landshut' plane arrive in Frankfurt on October 18, 1977Image: picture-alliance/dpa
The Boeing 737 returned to service a few weeks after the hijacking. Lufthansa then sold the plane in 1985 and it ended up in the fleet of Brazilian carrier TAF Linhas Aereas. TAF then decommissioned the plane in January 2008 and stored it in the Fortaleza airport.
The German foreign ministry said it bought the plane for 75,936 Brazilian real (20,000 euros, $23,307) from Brazilian airport operator Infraero.
"Great news," Jürgen Vietor, the co-pilot of the "Landshut" during its 1977 hijacking, told Bild. "The 'Landshut' is a symbol of 'German Autumn.' It belongs in Germany."
