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El Al Flight 426

4X-ATA, the aircraft involved in the hijacking
Hijacking
Date	23 July 1968 (1968-07-23)
Summary	Hijacking
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Boeing 707–458
Operator	El Al
Registration	4X-ATA
Flight origin	London Heathrow Airport
Stopover	Rome Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport
Destination	Lod Airport (renamed Ben Gurion International Airport)
Occupants	48
Passengers	38 (Including 3 hijackers)
Crew	10
Fatalities	0
Survivors	48 (Including 3 hijackers)

El Al Flight 426 was an El Al passenger flight hijacked on 23 July 1968 by three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), setting off a wave of hijackings by the PFLP.

Overview

El Al flight 426, on a Boeing 707-458, was scheduled to fly from Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport in Rome to Lod Airport, now known as Ben Gurion International Airport, in Tel Aviv.

After the aircraft departed Rome, the pilots requested coffee from the cabin crew. As the coffee was being brought up to the pilots, two of hijackers associated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) forced their way through the door to the flight deck. One of them clubbed the flight engineer with the butt of his pistol and ordered the plane to fly to Algiers. The remaining hijacker threatened the passengers with a pistol and an unpinned hand grenade.

When the plane landed at Dar El Beida, Algerian authorities grounded 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 equipped with Iranian and Indian passports. The hijackers were carefully chosen by the PFLP because of their occupations (a pilot, an army officer, and a karate teacher).

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.

Impact

Scholars of political science and terrorism studies have characterized the hijacking as a new era of terrorism as the first aviation attack motivated by political aims. According to David C. Rapoport, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), the modern wave of left-wing terrorism began with the hijacking of the El Al Flight 426 in the context of the political unrest of 1968.

Israel's airport security measures were instituted in 1968 after the hijacking. Between 1968 and 1979, Palestinian militant organizations made 11 attempts to hijack Israeli airplanes, all of them failing.

Pilot Oded Abarbanell later wrote a memoir of his experience during the hijacking.

See also

• List of aircraft hijackings
• Airport security
• Lufthansa Flight 181
• Operation Entebbe

References

1. ^ "Skyway Robbery". Time. 2 August 1968. Archived from the original on 12 January 2008. Retrieved 18 July 2014.
2. Emergency Management Net Hijack list
3. "Drama of the Desert: The Week of the Hostages". Time. 21 September 1970. Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 18 July 2014.
4. "History of airliner hijackings". BBC. 3 October 2001. Retrieved 8 December 2015.
5. ^ Hasisi, Badi (Fall 2012). "Ethnic Profiling In Airport Screening: Lessons From Israel, 1968-2010". American Law and Economics Review. 14 (2): 517–560.
6. Porat, Dan (June 2022). Evans, Richard J.; Neuburger, Mary C. (eds.). "The Hijacking of El Al Flight 426: The Advent of Air Terrorism". Journal of Contemporary History. 57 (4). SAGE Publications: 1072–1088. doi:10.1177/00220094221107501. ISSN 1461-7250. LCCN 66009877. S2CID 250126489.
7. Porat, Dan (August 2024). Evans, Richard J.; Neuburger, Mary C. (eds.). "Dual Narratives of the Israeli–Palestinian Conflict in Court: Shaping the Perception of International Terrorism". Journal of Contemporary History. 59 (3). SAGE Publications: 576–596. doi:10.1177/0022009424126 (inactive 1 November 2024). ISSN 1461-7250. LCCN 66009877. S2CID 271824536.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of November 2024 (link)
8. "Hijacking to Algiers".
9. "This Day in Jewish History / The First and Only el al Hijacking". Haaretz.

v t e Prominent terrorist attacks against Israelis in the history of the Arab–Israeli conflict – the 1960s
1968	El Al Flight 426 hijacking (July 23) El Al Flight 253 attack (December 26)
1969	El Al Flight 432 attack (February 18) Jerusalem bombings (February 21) TWA Flight 840 hijacking (August 29)
Attacks launched from Lebanon List of attacks against Israeli civilians before 1967 1950s 1970s

v t e Prominent Palestinian militancy attacks in the 1960s
Aircraft hijackings	El Al Flight 426 hijacking (July 23, 1968) El Al Flight 253 attack (December 26, 1968) El Al Flight 432 attack (February 18, 1969) TWA Flight 840 hijacking (August 29, 1969)
1950s 1970s

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