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Lufthansa Flight 615
The hijacking of Lufthansa Flight 615 occurred on 29 October 1972 and was aimed at the liberation of the three surviving perpetrators of the Munich massacre from a West German prison.
When the Lufthansa airplane was seized by sympathisers of the Black September Organization during the Beirut-Ankara part of a multi-stopover flight from Damascus to Frankfurt, the West German authorities complied with the demand of having the prisoners released. They were handed over at Zagreb Airport, and the hijacked aircraft was flown to Tripoli, where all hostages were released. The liberated Munich attackers were granted asylum by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
For its actions, the West German government was criticised by Israel and other parties. Allegations were made that the hijacking had been staged or at least tolerated with theories of a secret agreement between the German government and Black September – release of the surviving militants in exchange for assurances of no further attacks on Germany.
On 5 September 1972, during the Munich Summer Olympics, eight members of the Palestinian group Black September took nine members of the Israeli Olympic team hostage, after killing two other Israeli athletes. During a shoot-out following a failed police rescue attempt at Fürstenfeldbruck Air Base, all hostages were killed. Five of the eight Palestinian militants were also killed. The three surviving perpetrators were Adnan Al-Gashey, Jamal Al-Gashey, and Mohammed Safady, who were arrested and held in pre-trial custody.
In the immediate aftermath of the Munich massacre, West German authorities were concerned over being drawn into the Arab–Israeli conflict. As foreign minister Walter Scheel put it in October 1972, one had to "defend against actions by both sides of the conflict". In Israel, the ensuing German appeasement politics led to comparisons with the 1938 Munich Agreement.
Indeed, since Willy Brandt had become chancellor in 1969, there had been a change of the West German attitude towards the Arab–Israeli conflict. The earlier conservative governments had been considered pointedly pro-Israel (especially during the mid-1960s with the Six-Day War), which had resulted in a number of Arab states breaking off diplomatic relations with West Germany. With Egypt and Tunisia, these had only been restored shortly before the 1972 Olympics.
The West German authorities were aware of the high profile of the prisoners and the fact that the group had numerous sympathisers, so that acts aiming at the liberation of the Munich attackers were feared. Aircraft of (then) national airline Lufthansa or its Israeli counterpart El Al were identified as likely targets. On 9 September, an anonymous letter was received claiming that such a hijacking was indeed imminent, which prompted the Federal Ministry of the Interior (then led by Hans-Dietrich Genscher) to consider whether citizens of Arab states should be denied boarding of Lufthansa flights.
Already during the Munich hostage crisis, it had become evident that the attackers were aware of possible liberation attempts in case of their arrest. Asked if he was afraid of being caught and put into a German prison, their leader Luttif Afif (who was later killed in the Fürstenfeldbruck shootout) had responded that there was nothing to fear, because "there is no death penalty in Germany, and our brothers would liberate us."
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Lufthansa Flight 615
The hijacking of Lufthansa Flight 615 occurred on 29 October 1972 and was aimed at the liberation of the three surviving perpetrators of the Munich massacre from a West German prison.
When the Lufthansa airplane was seized by sympathisers of the Black September Organization during the Beirut-Ankara part of a multi-stopover flight from Damascus to Frankfurt, the West German authorities complied with the demand of having the prisoners released. They were handed over at Zagreb Airport, and the hijacked aircraft was flown to Tripoli, where all hostages were released. The liberated Munich attackers were granted asylum by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
For its actions, the West German government was criticised by Israel and other parties. Allegations were made that the hijacking had been staged or at least tolerated with theories of a secret agreement between the German government and Black September – release of the surviving militants in exchange for assurances of no further attacks on Germany.
On 5 September 1972, during the Munich Summer Olympics, eight members of the Palestinian group Black September took nine members of the Israeli Olympic team hostage, after killing two other Israeli athletes. During a shoot-out following a failed police rescue attempt at Fürstenfeldbruck Air Base, all hostages were killed. Five of the eight Palestinian militants were also killed. The three surviving perpetrators were Adnan Al-Gashey, Jamal Al-Gashey, and Mohammed Safady, who were arrested and held in pre-trial custody.
In the immediate aftermath of the Munich massacre, West German authorities were concerned over being drawn into the Arab–Israeli conflict. As foreign minister Walter Scheel put it in October 1972, one had to "defend against actions by both sides of the conflict". In Israel, the ensuing German appeasement politics led to comparisons with the 1938 Munich Agreement.
Indeed, since Willy Brandt had become chancellor in 1969, there had been a change of the West German attitude towards the Arab–Israeli conflict. The earlier conservative governments had been considered pointedly pro-Israel (especially during the mid-1960s with the Six-Day War), which had resulted in a number of Arab states breaking off diplomatic relations with West Germany. With Egypt and Tunisia, these had only been restored shortly before the 1972 Olympics.
The West German authorities were aware of the high profile of the prisoners and the fact that the group had numerous sympathisers, so that acts aiming at the liberation of the Munich attackers were feared. Aircraft of (then) national airline Lufthansa or its Israeli counterpart El Al were identified as likely targets. On 9 September, an anonymous letter was received claiming that such a hijacking was indeed imminent, which prompted the Federal Ministry of the Interior (then led by Hans-Dietrich Genscher) to consider whether citizens of Arab states should be denied boarding of Lufthansa flights.
Already during the Munich hostage crisis, it had become evident that the attackers were aware of possible liberation attempts in case of their arrest. Asked if he was afraid of being caught and put into a German prison, their leader Luttif Afif (who was later killed in the Fürstenfeldbruck shootout) had responded that there was nothing to fear, because "there is no death penalty in Germany, and our brothers would liberate us."