Lufthansa Flight 181, a Boeing 737-230C jet airliner (reg. D-ABCE) named Landshut, was hijacked on 13 October 1977 by four militants of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine while en route from Palma de Mallorca, Spain, to Frankfurt am Main, West Germany. The hijacking aimed to secure the release of eleven notorious Red Army Faction leaders held in West German prisons and two Palestinians held in Turkey. This event was part of the so-called German Autumn, intended to increase pressure on the West German government. The hijackers diverted the flight to several locations before ending in Mogadishu, Somalia, where the crisis concluded in the early morning hours of 18 October 1977 under the cover of darkness. The West German counter-terrorism unit GSG 9, with ground support from the Somali Armed Forces, stormed the aircraft, rescuing all 87 passengers and four crew members. The captain of the flight was killed by the hijackers earlier in the ordeal.
Background
The hijacking was a dramatic escalation in the so-called German Autumn of 1977, a period marked by a series of terrorist activities in West Germany. It was directly linked to the dramatic kidnapping in Braunsfeld, Cologne, of Hanns Martin Schleyer, a prominent West German industrialist, by the Red Army Faction (RAF) "Commando Siegfried Hausner" group on 5 September 1977. Militants of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), working in concert with the RAF, hijacked the Lufthansa Landshut plane to secure the release of their imprisoned leaders and comrades, predominantly held in the West German supermax Stammheim Prison, as well as two Palestinians held in Turkey. The hijacking was intended to increase pressure on the West German government to meet these demands. It culminated in the West German GSG 9 rescue operation, codenamed "Feuerzauber" (German for "Magic Fire"), which resulted in the liberation of all 87 passengers and four of the five crew members. Three hijackers were killed during the rescue, and one was captured alive.
Lufthansa crew
Two flight crew and three cabin crew operated the round-trip flight from Frankfurt to Palma de Mallorca:
Played with your browser's voice. Studio-quality audio can be added with a text-to-speech service.
Ask about this article
📝 Quick Quiz1 / 4
What is "Lufthansa Flight 181" primarily known for?
Vocix Daily — In Your Inbox
Top stories, deep-dive articles, and "On This Day" history — one crisp digest delivered every morning.
Sources & references
Reference material for this entry is drawn from the open encyclopedic record, including Wikipedia , available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license. Images are credited individually beside each photo.
Jürgen Schumann (37): Captain. Born in Colditz in 1940, he was a former German Air Force Lockheed F-104 Starfighter pilot. On 16 October at Aden Airport, after being permitted to leave the aircraft to check its airworthiness following a forced landing on an unpaved sand strip, he also spoke with Yemeni airport authorities to try to ensure the plane remained grounded. On his return, he boarded the plane after a long absence, only to be murdered by terrorist leader Zohair Yousif Akache (nom de guerre Captain Mahmoud) in a fit of rage, fueled by suspicions, before he could explain his reasons for the long absence. It was believed this act was also intended to add weight to the kidnappers' demands. Posthumously awarded the German Federal Cross of Merit 1st class for his actions during the hijack, he was survived by his wife and two sons. The building housing the Lufthansa Pilot School in Bremen was named in his honour, as was a street in the Bavarian city of Landshut. He is buried in Babenhausen in Hesse.
Jürgen Vietor (35): Co-Pilot. Born in Kassel in 1942, a former German Navy pilot. He piloted the Landshut from Aden to Mogadishu. He returned to work just six weeks after the hijacking, and the first aircraft he was assigned to was the Landshut which had already been repaired and returned to service. He was also awarded the German Federal Cross of Merit 1st Class for his actions during the hijacking. He retired in 1999. In December 2008, he returned the medal in protest over the release on probation of the former Red Army Faction terrorist Christian Klar, who had been involved in the kidnap and murder of Hanns Martin Schleyer in 1977.
Hannelore Piegler (33): Chief flight attendant. Austrian. She was in charge of the cabin crew, servicing the first-class passengers. For her courage and dedication to the crew and passengers during the hijacking of Lufthansa Flight 181, she was awarded the German Federal Cross of Merit. Subsequently, she authored a book titled Entführung, Hundert Stunden zwischen Angst und Hoffnung (Hijacking, Hundred Hours Between Fear and Hope), detailing the events and her journey through the ordeal.
Anna-Maria Staringer (27/28): Flight attendant. Norwegian. Along with Piegler and Dillmann, she took responsibility for looking after and supporting the terrified passengers. She was also awarded the German Federal Cross of Merit for her courage. She marked her 28th birthday on the flight. In an unsettling gesture, Akache (Captain Mahmoud), the leader of the hijack group, ordered a birthday cake and champagne via the radio in Dubai. The airport catering supplied a cake with 28 candles, embellished with "Happy Birthday Anna-Maria".
Gabriele Dillmann (23): Flight attendant. Despite her young age, she was a pillar of support and hope for the other hostages and was dubbed the "Angel of Mogadishu" (Engel von Mogadischu) by the German press for her courageous behaviour. Along with her flight crew, she was awarded the German Federal Cross of Merit for her courage. She subsequently married Lufthansa pilot Rüdiger von Lutzau, who piloted the Lufthansa Boeing 707 aircraft with the GSG 9 counter-terrorism unit that landed in Mogadishu. As Gabriele von Lutzau, she has acquired an international reputation as a sculptor, principally of figures in beechwood, and has shown her work in numerous exhibitions in Germany and throughout Europe.
Hijackers
Zohair Yousif Akache (23), nom de guerre Captain Mahmoud: Also known by his Iranian passport alias Ali Hyderi. He was the leader of the hijacker group. Growing up in a refugee camp near Beirut, he later studied at the Chelsea College of Aeronautical and Automobile Engineering in London, leaving in 1975 after gaining his aeronautical diploma. A veteran terrorist, he had already murdered two Yemen Arab Republic diplomats and the wife of one of them in London on 10 April 1977, and was wanted by Scotland Yard in connection with the killings. The political assassination took place outside the Royal Lancaster Hotel, where the former Prime Minister of Yemen, Kadhi Abdullah al-Hajri (65), his wife, Fatimah (40), and a Yemeni diplomat, Abdullah Ali al Hammami, minister plenipotentiary at the embassy, were murdered in their Mercedes vehicle using a silenced .32 automatic pistol. Akache left the country that afternoon via Heathrow Airport, using a Kuwaiti passport in the name of Ahmed Badir al-Majid. More than a year earlier, Akache had also been sentenced to six months in prison for hitting a police officer while attending a meeting in Hyde Park, London, and was later deported. At the time of his arrest, British police found Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) posters and pictures of PLO leaders in his hotel room.
Wabil Harb (23): Also known as Nabil Harb, Iranian passport alias Riza Abbasi. Son of wealthy Christian parents in Beirut, he occasionally exchanged friendly words with the hostages. The passengers referred to him as "the boy".
Souhaila Andrawes Sayeh (22): Also known by her Iranian passport alias Soraya Ansari. Born a Palestinian in Israel, she studied English literature in Baghdad. Despite being critically injured, she was the only one of the four hijackers to survive. The passengers referred to her as "the fat one".
Hind Alameh (22): Also known as Nadia Shehadah Yousuf Duaibes, Iranian passport alias Shanaz Gholoun. Born to Christian parents in Lebanon, she was described by survivors of Lufthansa Flight 181 as an unusually pretty, petite girl. Sometimes, she was the only one who laughed on the plane, and the passengers referred to her as "the little one".
At the time, the hijackers' names remained unknown to the passengers and crew of Lufthansa Flight 181, other than Captain Mahmoud's alias, so the passengers and crew referred to them by nicknames. To this day, the survivors still refer to them as "the little one," "the fat one," "the boy," and "Captain Mahmoud".
Hostage ordeal
During the five-day ordeal, the hijackers terrorized the passengers and crew with verbal abuse, physical assaults, and restraint, subjecting them to psychological torture and threats of further physical harm or death. They frequently yelled at passengers, demanding Jewish passengers to identify themselves and sifted through the passengers' passports, luggage, and personal possessions to search for clues indicating Jewish identity. At one point, Mahmoud found a Montblanc pen in a passenger's luggage. Mistaking the snowcap logo on the cap of the pen for the Star of David, he accused the female passenger of being Jewish. Despite the passenger's desperate denial, Mahmoud declared, "You report for shooting tomorrow morning at 8:30, understood?" The hijackers also reacted with rage upon finding a watch from Junghans, a company whose logo also bore resemblance to the Star of David, among the possessions of passengers. Almost as feared as the leader, Mahmoud, was Andrawes Sayeh, whom some passengers later described as equally zealous.
Aribert Martin, one of the West German GSG 9 commandos who stormed the Lufthansa Landshut aircraft in Mogadishu to rescue the hostages, recalled, "The first thing that hit me was an unbelievable stench. The terrorists hadn't let the hostages go to the toilet, so the passengers had to relieve themselves in their seats. This had been going on for five days. I could smell that stench for years." This recollection was echoed by his colleague, Peter Horstmüller, who also stormed the aircraft, and other GSG 9 commandos.
Notable hostages
Horst-Gregorio Canellas, German football official responsible for breaking the 1971 Bundesliga scandal was one of the hostages on board, along with his daughter.
Key West German rescue personnel
Lieutenant Colonel (Oberstleutnant) Ulrich Wegener (48): Founder and commander of GSG 9 (Border Guard Group 9), the specialized counter-terrorism tactical intervention unit of the Federal Border Guard (Bundesgrenzschutz), established by West Germany in 1972 shortly after the Munich Olympic massacre. Wegener planned and led the daring operation to rescue the hostages on Lufthansa Flight 181 (Landshut).
Major Klaus Blätte (38): Deputy commander of GSG 9 in 1977 who took part in the operation to storm the Landshut at Mogadishu. When Wegener was promoted in 1979, Blätte succeeded him as commander of GSG 9.
Minister Hans-Jürgen Wischnewski (55): Minister of State in the Federal Chancellery, designated by Chancellor Helmut Schmidt as his special envoy to coordinate the political negotiations with various foreign governments to facilitate the release or rescue of the Landshut hostages. Due to his excellent contacts and personal relationships with Arab leaders, he was nicknamed "Ben Wisch" by the German press. When Helmut Schmidt was succeeded by Helmut Kohl, Wischnewski became a traveling consultant to Arab, African, and South American countries, advising them on negotiating techniques and pacification policies to deal with terrorist and insurgent groups. He died in 2005.
Chancellor Helmut Schmidt (58): German Federal Chancellor (Bundeskanzler) from 1974 and 1982, he adopted a tough, uncompromising stance on the Hanns Martin Schleyer kidnapping and the Lufthansa 181 hijacking in 1977. He authorized the GSG 9 mission to rescue the Landshut hostages, and his anti-terrorism policies were successful in overcoming the long-standing threat posed by the Red Army Faction. After retiring from the Bundestag in 1986, he helped found the committee supporting the Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union and the creation of the European Central Bank. He died in 2015.
Timeline
Hijacking
At 13:55 Central European Time (CET) on Thursday, 13 October 1977, Lufthansa flight LH 181, a Boeing 737 named Landshut, took off from Palma de Mallorca Airport en route to Frankfurt Airport with 87 passengers (91 including the 4 hijackers) and five crew members. The hijackers were able to board the aircraft carrying two concealed pistols, four hand grenades, and 500 grams (18 oz) of plastic explosive due to lax airport security in Palma, Spain. The flight was piloted by Captain Jürgen Schumann, with co-pilot Jürgen Vietor at the controls.
About 30 minutes later, while overflying Marseille, the aircraft was hijacked by four militants of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), who called themselves "Commando Martyr Halima" in honour of fellow German militant Brigitte Kuhlmann. Kuhlmann, who used the nom de guerre "Halima", had been killed in Operation Entebbe in Uganda the previous year. The leader of the hijacker group, adopting the nom de guerre Captain Mahmoud, angrily burst into the cockpit, brandishing a fully loaded pistol. He forcibly removed Vietor from the cockpit, sending him to the economy class area to join the passengers and flight attendants, leaving Schumann at the flight controls. As the other three hijackers knocked over food trays and ordered the hostages to put their hands on their heads, Mahmoud coerced Captain Schumann to fly east to Larnaca in Cyprus but was told that the plane had insufficient fuel and would have to land in Rome first.
Rome
The hijacked aircraft changed course at around 14:38 CET, as reported by air traffic controllers in southern France near Aix-en-Provence, diverting eastward and landing at Fiumicino Airport in Rome at 15:45 CET for refuelling. At around 17:00 CET, the hijackers made their first demands via the control tower, acting in concert with a Red Army Faction group, the Commando Siegfried Hausner group, which had kidnapped West German industrialist Hanns Martin Schleyer five weeks earlier. They demanded the release of all "comrades" imprisoned in the Federal Republic (West Germany), specifically the eleven Red Army Faction (RAF) terrorists detained predominantly at the supermax Stammheim Prison in Stuttgart.
The West German government expected active support for its tough anti-terrorism policy from its NATO and EC partners. West German Interior Minister Werner Maihofer contacted his Italian counterpart Francesco Cossiga and urged that the take-off of the hijacked plane be prevented by all means possible—whether by blocking the runway, which was initiated hesitantly or by shooting out the tyres during take-off. Cossiga never considered this, because the airport administration had unilaterally complied with the kidnappers' request to refuel the plane. Firing on the plane as it took off could easily have led to an explosion and thus a bloodbath among the passengers. After consulting with his colleagues, Cossiga decided that the most desirable solution for the Italian government was to rid itself of the problem altogether and not become a target of international terrorism through forceful action. At 17:42 CET, the Landshut took off unhindered towards Cyprus, even without obtaining clearance from Rome air traffic control.
Hijackers demands and ultimatum
While maintaining a rigorous news blackout, the West German government, stalling for time—a strategy they had already adopted early in the crisis of the kidnapping of West German industrialist Hanns Martin Schleyer on 5 September—asked the hijackers to "clarify" some points in their communiqué. The West German government had previously proposed Geneva lawyer Denis Payot, president of the Swiss League for Human and Citizen Rights (Ligue suisse des droits de l'homme et du citoyen), as a middleman for negotiations with Schleyer's kidnappers. Payot, a 35-year-old lawyer, was first mentioned by Schleyer's kidnappers when they demanded that Payot and Martin Niemoeller, an 85-year-old German theologian, Lutheran pastor, and former opponent of the Nazi regime, accompany the eleven Red Army Faction members on a flight to a country that would be named after they were freed from prison.
A letter in English, dated 13 October by the hijackers but received on Friday night, 14 October, addressed to Federal Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, was delivered to Payot, as well as the French newspaper France-Soir, the Agence France-Presse (AFP) in Paris, and the Frankfurter Rundschau. The hijacking of Lufthansa Flight 181 had intensified the pressure on the West German government to have the Red Army Faction prisoners flown out, reaching an extreme level. Observers in the Federal Chancellery in Bonn were now firmly expecting a prisoner-hostage exchange.
The letter, which Payot said contained "demands and precise deadlines," was immediately forwarded to the Federal Chancellery in Bonn. Payot kept an earlier promise to the West German government that he would not divulge details of the messages that went through his office. Schleyer's kidnappers had contacted the lawyer fourteen times by telephone between September 6 and 17. Telephone calls made from West Germany to Payot's number were intercepted by the West German Federal Criminal Police Agency from the Frankfurt telecommunications office, and a "call trace" was also set up that allowed these calls to be traced back to telephone booths in Cologne. The French authorities discovered that Payot had also been called several times from Gare du Nord in Paris. The letter received by Payot from the hijackers, addressed to Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, stated:
Ultimatum to the Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany.
We hereby inform you that the passengers and crew of Lufthansa aircraft 737, flight number LH 181, from Palma to Frankfurt (M[ain]) are under our complete control and responsibility. The lives of the passengers and crew and the life of Dr. Hanns Martin Schleyer depends on your fulfilling the following demands:
Release of the following RAF comrades from West German prisons: Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin, Jan Carl Raspe, Verena Becker, Werner Hoppe, Karl-Heinz Dellwo, Hanna Krabbe, Bernd Rössner, Ingrid Schubert, Irmgard Möller, Günter Sonnenberg. Each person is to receive DM 100,000.
Release of the following Palestinian F.L.P. comrades from prison in Istanbul: - Mahdi - Hussein.
The payment of 15 million US dollars according to the attached instructions.
Make arrangements with one of the following countries to receive the comrades who have been released: Democratic Republic of Vietnam, Republic of Somalia, People's Democratic Republic of Yemen.
The German prisoners should be taken to their destination in an aircraft provided by you, you should fly via Istanbul and take on the two Palestinian comrades released from the prison there. The Turkish Government is well informed of our demands. All prisoners should reach their destination by Sunday, 16 October 1977, 08:00 GMT. The money should be handed over within the same period in accordance with the enclosed instructions.
If all prisoners are not released and reach their destination and the money is not handed over as instructed within the specified time, Hanns Martin Schleyer and all passengers and the crew of Lufthansa aircraft 737, flight LH 181, will be killed immediately.
If you comply with our instructions, everyone will be released.
We will not attempt to contact you again. This will be our last contact with you. You will be held responsible for any error or failure in releasing the above prisoners or in handing over the specified ransom as instructed.
Any attempt at delay or deception on your part will result in the immediate expiration of the ultimatum and the execution of Hanns Martin Schleyer, the passengers and the crew of the aircraft.
13 October 1977,
Organization for the Fight against World Imperialism.
The letter to the Federal Republic of West Germany comprised two statements from the hijackers, who identified themselves as members of an "Organization for the Fight against World Imperialism." The first statement reiterated the demands made by Schleyer's kidnappers, while the second statement, titled "Operation Kafr Qaddum" was addressed to "all revolutionaries in the world," "all free Arabs," and "our Palestinian masses," attempting to provide a political justification for their actions. Additionally, a third statement was provided by the Commando Siegfried Hausner Red Army Faction, who were holding Hanns Martin Schleyer hostage.
Because this demand from the hijackers included prisoners held in Turkey, the West German Federal Government was in constant contact with the Turkish government from 14 October until the hostages' liberation on 18 October.
Larnaca
The Landshut landed in Larnaca, Cyprus, at 20:28 CET. After about an hour, a local Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) representative arrived at the airport and, over the radio, tried to persuade Mahmoud to release the hostages. This only provoked a furious response from Mahmoud, who angrily screamed at him in Arabic until the PLO representative gave up and left. The aircraft was then refuelled, and Schumann asked flight control for routing to Beirut. He was told that Beirut Airport was blockaded and closed to them, and Mahmoud suggested that they fly to Damascus instead. The Landshut took off at 22:50 CET, heading for Beirut, but was refused permission to land there at 23:01 CET. After also being denied landing permission in Damascus at 23:14 CET, Baghdad at 00:23 CET (14 October), and Kuwait at 00:58 CET, they flew to Bahrain.
Bahrain
Schumann was informed by a passing Qantas airliner that Bahrain International Airport was also closed to them. Schumann radioed flight control and stated that they had insufficient fuel to fly elsewhere. Despite being told again that the airport was closed, he was suddenly given an automatic landing frequency by the flight controller. The plane finally touched down in Bahrain at 01:52 CET on 14 October. Upon arrival, the aircraft was immediately surrounded by armed troops. Mahmoud radioed the control tower, threatening to shoot the co-pilot unless the soldiers were withdrawn. After a stand-off with the control tower, during which Mahmoud set a five‑minute deadline and held a loaded pistol to Vietor's head, the troops were withdrawn. The aircraft was then refuelled and took off for Dubai at 03:24 CET.
Dubai
Approaching Dubai, the 737 was again denied landing permission. Overflying Dubai International Airport in the early light of dawn, the hijackers and pilots saw the runway blocked with military jeeps, trucks, and fire engines. Running short of fuel, Schumann radioed the control tower to announce that they were going to land anyway. As they made a low pass over the airport, the vehicles were finally being removed. At 05:40 CET, the pilots made a smooth touchdown on the airport's main runway at sunrise. The plane was parked at the parking bay around 05:51 CET, at daybreak.
In Dubai, the hijackers instructed the control tower to send airport crew staff to empty the toilet tanks, supply food, water, medicine, and newspapers, and take away the rubbish. Captain Schumann was able to communicate the number of hijackers on board, specifying that there were two male and two female hijackers by dropping different types of cigarettes on the tarmac from the cockpit window. In an interview with journalists, this information was revealed by Dubai's Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, then Minister of Defence. The hijackers learned about this, possibly from the radio, causing an enraged Mahmoud to angrily threaten Schumann's life for secretly sharing this coded message.
The aircraft remained parked on the tarmac at Dubai International Airport throughout Saturday, 15 October, during which the jet airliner experienced technical snags with the electrical generator, air conditioning, and auxiliary power unit breaking down. The hijackers demanded that engineers fix the plane. On the morning of Sunday, 16 October, Mahmoud threatened to start shooting hostages if the aircraft was not refuelled, and Dubai authorities eventually agreed to refuel the plane.
