A Japan Air Lines Boeing 747-200, similar to the one involved
Hijacking
Date
20 July 1973 (1973-07-20)
Summary
Hijacking
Site
Dubai International Airport, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Aircraft
Aircraft type
Boeing 747-246B
Operator
Japan Air Lines
Registration
JA8109
Flight origin
Schiphol International Airport, Amsterdam, Netherlands
1st stopover
Orly International Airport, Paris, France
2nd stopover
Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, Anchorage, Alaska, United States
Destination
Tokyo International Airport, Tokyo, Japan
Passengers
118 (plus 5 hijackers)
Crew
22
Fatalities
1 (hijacker)
Survivors
144 (all passengers and crew; plus the 4 surviving hijackers)
Japan Air Lines Flight 404 was a passenger flight which was hijacked by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Japanese Red Army on 20 July 1973.[1]
The flight departed Amsterdam-Schiphol International Airport, Netherlands, on 20 July 1973, en route to Tokyo International Airport (Haneda), Japan, via Anchorage International Airport, Alaska, US. The aircraft was a Boeing 747-246B, with 123 passengers and 22 crew members on board. The passenger complement included five terrorists, led by Osamu Maruoka, a member of the Japanese Red Army, and the other four were members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.[2]
Just after takeoff from Schiphol Airport, the flight was hijacked by a group of armed men. One of the hijackers accidentally detonated a grenade he was carrying, killing one of the flight attendants and severely injuring the chief purser. The lead hijacker almost immediately announced himself to air traffic control as El Kassar, hijacking the aircraft in the name of the Palestinian Liberation movement.[3] After several Middle Eastern governments refused to permit Flight 404 to land, the plane eventually touched down in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates. After several days on the ground, the terrorists demanded the release of Kozo Okamoto, survivor of the JRA's attack on Tel Aviv's Lod Airport.[4]
After the Israeli government refused to release Okamoto, the hijackers flew the aircraft first to Damascus, Syria, and then to Benghazi, in Libya.[5] On 23 July, 89 hours after the hijacking began, the passengers and crew were released; the hijackers then blew up the aircraft, making the incident the second hull loss of a Boeing 747, and the first hull loss of a 747-200.[5] The first hull-loss was also the result of hijackers.
Maruoka escaped, and in 1977, led the hijacking of Japan Air Lines Flight 472. He remained a fugitive until 1987 when he was arrested in Tokyo after entering Japan on a forged passport. Given a life sentence, he died in prison on 29 May 2011.[6]
^"Chronology of aviation terrorism: 1968-2004". Skyjack, Aviation Terrorism Research. Archived from the original on 14 January 2016. Retrieved 20 July 2015.
^"In the Spotlight: Japanese Red Army". Center for Defense Information. Archived from the original on 2006-11-24. Retrieved 2017-01-28.
^"The Skyjackers Strike Again". Time.com. July 30, 1973. Archived from the original on December 14, 2008. Retrieved May 5, 2010.
^"The Skyjackers Strike Again, pg. 2". Time.com. July 30, 1973. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved May 5, 2010.
^ abHijacking description at the Aviation Safety Network
^"Ex-Red Army member Maruoka dies", Japan Times, 30 May 2011.
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