55 Years ago!September 6, 1970 Silmultaneous Hijackings. (updated Sptember 2025)

• Mid Afternoon

• Third Plane Hijacked
  At 1:45 pm local time, Leila Khaled and Patrick Arguello run towards the cockpit on El Al Flight 219, holding grenades and shouting. Pilot Uri Bar Lev puts the plane into a nose dive. In the confusion, Arguello shoots a flight steward, security guards restrain Khaled, and an air marshal mortally wounds Arguello. The hijacking has failed and the flight heads to London to land. Terrorists Board Fourth Plane
  Between 2pm and 3pm local time — after Amsterdam airport security staff fail to detect pistols and a concealed grenade — the two terrorists who had been removed from El Al Flight 219 take first-class seats on a Pan Am 747 jumbo jet, Flight 93 departing for New YorkLess than twenty minutes after the attempted hijacking, Pilot Uri Bar Lev lands the El Al Flight at Heathrow Airport in London. Police escort Leila Khaled and Patrick Arguello to a nearby hospital. Arguello dies en route and authorities arrest Leila Khaled for the attempted hijacking of El Al Flight 219.

• Late Evening

  • Fourth Plane Diverted
    Hijackers divert Pan Am Flight 93, the jumbo 747, from its New York route to refuel in Beirut. The pilots have convinced them that the plane is too large to land at the desert airfield in Jordan. In Beirut, nine more Palestinian terrorists board the plane and wire it with explosives before it departs at 9:35pm local time for Cairo.After circling over Cairo for two hours, the Pan Am jumbo jet lands at 2:23 am. The passengers and crew frantically evacuate moments before the plane explodes. Egyptian police arrest the terrorists on the scene.

  • • • Three days after the initial hijackings, the British government confirms that there are no British citizens among the hostages taken on September 6. It's a moot point. Shortly after lunch is served on BOAC flight 775, three Palestinian militants skyjack the British VC-10, en route from Bahrain to London via Beirut, with 105 passengers and ten crew members.

      • Refueling
        In the afternoon, BOAC Flight 775 lands in Beirut to refuel, before continuing on to Revolution Airport.

      • More Hostages
        In the evening, the VC-10 lands at Revolution Airport, next to the two previously hijacked planes. The Palestinians now hold over two hundred hostages at the desert airstrip.

B707 5-POD 

Boeing's engineers designed the 707's wing with the capability of attaching an additional engine for transport. In the case of the 707 pictured above, that engine was attached in Paris and flown to Rome, Italy. Once there, it was removed and attached to another TWA 707 for the flight to Bombay (with a stop in Dharan, Saudi Arabia). Flying replacement engines to far distant stations was always a challenge for TWA and they were quite pleased that the Boeing 707 was able to transport the three-ton engine on a scheduled flight, with negligible effect on the plane's performance or fuel consumption.   

Note:The Orly Maintenance and CDG staff was an important key to International operations.

The airplane was a Lockheed L-049 Constellation, serial number 2035, NC86511, named Star of Paris, under the command of Captain Harold F.  Blackburn. Captains Jack Hermann and John M. Calder, Navigator M. Chrisman and Flight Engineers Art Ruhanen, Ray McBride and Jack Rouge completed the flight crew. Purser Don Shiemwell and Hostess Ruth Schmidt were in the cabin along with 36 passengers.

Star of Paris departed LaGuardia at 2:21 p.m., EST, 5 February. The flight made brief stops at Gander, Newfoundland (YQX) and Shannon, Ireland (SNN), and arrived at Orly Field, at 3:57 p.m., February 6. The elapsed time was 16 hours, 21 minutes.

ATHENS LGAT-Airport April 1962 

By Annie Picard (ORY-CDG)

What a treat for a 22 years old French girl to look after the First Lady of America! She was extremely pleasant !.

This is one of my best memory during my 39 years with TWA.

PARIS LFPO-ORLY Airport May 29 1964

TWA 803  ORY TO JFK

A Big Surprise from a FAA Inspector

 By TWA Captain Jerry Lawler

A major role in my job as Chairman of the Training and Standards Committee was to oversee the training and checking of the TWA flight crews. I had to deal with crew members that were having difficulties and were in jeopardy of failure. Failure meant lack of proficiency which could result in termination from TWA. I also oversaw the role of the instructors and check airmen who might be overzealous and maybe unfair. In this role, I had to be very proficient in the knowledge of the procedures and policies of the TWA Flight Operations Department. I preached that you could not flunk a checkride if you go by the book. This also included the instructors and the check airmen.