Replies

They had been interviewing the pilot with questions shouted to that small window, and answers shouted back. This interview did not last long, but proved long enough to anger the gunman still inside.

At another time they also interviewed their confederates, who collected at the bottom of the deployable aft staircase (I think D.B. Cooper jumped from one such egress, years ago):

I remember these guys all did get away however US intel learned of them being flown later somewhere across the Mediterranean and F-14's scrambled from a carrier suceeded in forcing the transport to land somewhere friendly to the USA.

There were some heavy negotiations and I think those guys all later did land in prison, somewhere.

So against all odds they later ended up not getting away with it, after all.

I could be mixing up this happy ending with that of the perps of the Achille Lauro job, however.

They shot USN diver Robert Dean Stethem and threw his body onto the tarmac.

I remember these guys all did get away however US intel learned of them being flown later somewhere across the Mediterranean and F-14's scrambled from a carrier suceeded in forcing the transport to land somewhere friendly to the USA.

This plane returned to Beirut where the hijacking ended. I wonder if you're thinking of an Egyptair flight evacuating the four Palestinian terrorists who took over the Achille Lauro. Reagan scrambled F-14s and forced the flight down at a NATO base in Sicily. I guess NATO and Italy are friendly, but I understand there were some tense confrontations at the base, and we let the Carabinieri take custody and Italy prosecute. The fate of the hijackers per wiki.

##Ahmad Marrouf al-Assadi disappeared in 1991 while on parole, but in 1994 was known to Spanish authorities, during the trial of Monzer al-Kassar.[Note 2]
##Bassam al-Asker was granted parole in 1991. He was thought to have died on February 21, 2004, but according to the Lebanese Daily Star, he had instead fled the country. He spent 14 years in Iraq, training Palestinian militiamen to fight the US army alongside Iraqi rebels, before travelling to the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in Lebanon, where he resided as of 2007.[12]
##Ibrahim Fatayer Abdelatif was sentenced to 30 years' imprisonment. He served 20 and three more on parole and on July 7, 2008, he was expelled from an illegal immigrant detention center in Rome. He plans to appeal this, arguing that he has nowhere else to go since Lebanon will not allow his return as he was born in a refugee camp and is thus not a Lebanese citizen.
##Youssef Majed al-Molqi, convicted of killing Leon Klinghoffer, was sentenced to 30 years. He left the Rebibbia prison in Rome on February 16, 1996, on a 12-day furlough and fled to Spain, where he was recaptured and extradited back to Italy. On April 29, 2009, Italian officials released him from prison early, for good behaviour.[13] In June 2009, however, al-Molqui's attorney told the Associated Press that the Italian authorities had placed his client in a holding cell and were about to deport him to Syria.[14] According to several sources, the head of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, was personally involved in al-Moliqui's release, although this was officially denied.[citation needed]