Air France Flight 8969
Encyclopedia
Air France Flight 8969 was an Air France
flight that was hijack
ed on 24 December 1994 by the Armed Islamic Group
(GIA) at Algiers, where they killed three passengers, with the intention to crash it on the Eiffel tower
in Paris
. When the aircraft reached Marseille
, the GIGN
, an intervention group of the French Gendarmerie, stormed the plane and killed all four hijackers. The GIA's plan appeared to foreshadow the 11 September attacks. Thomas Sancton of TIME
magazine described the event as "one of the most successful anti-terrorist operations in history."
. Aircraft going to Algiers faced the possibility of missile attacks. As a result Air France's flights to Algiers had crews entirely made of people who volunteered for the route. Air France had asked government officials if it absolutely had to continue flying to Algeria; as of the time of the hijacking there had been no replies. Bernard Dhellemme was the captain of the flight. Jean-Paul Borderie was the copilot, and Alain Bossuat was the flight engineer. The Airbus A300B2-1C, tail number F-GBEC, went on its first flight on 28 February 1980.
, Algiers, Algeria, four armed men dressed as Algerian presidential police boarded Air France Flight 8969 bound to depart for Orly Airport
, Paris at 11:15 A.M. The men had blue uniforms with Air Algérie
logos. Their presence originally did not cause alarm. They began inspecting the passengers' passports. Claude Burgniard, a flight attendant
, recalled noticing that the "police" were armed; she considered this as unusual as the Algerian police were not usually armed while performing checks. The Algerian military felt suspicion when it noticed that the Air France flight had what appeared to be an unauthorized delay, so members began surrounding the aircraft. Zahida Kakachi, a passenger, recalled seeing a group of Algerian special forces, known as "ninja
s," outside the aircraft. Kakachi recalled hearing one of the "police" say "talout," a word for "infidel
", upon seeing the "ninjas" gathering outside of the A300; therefore she discovered that they were terrorists. The four men revealed then that they were not police. An Algerian mechanic recalled that he knew that the men were militants when one yelled "Allah
is Great!" The men hijacked the aircraft because, as a part of the national airline Air France, it was a symbol of France.
Abdul Abdullah Yahia and the other three members of the Armed Islamic Group
(Groupe Islamique Armé, or GIA) brandished firearms and explosives and demanded cooperation from the 220 passengers and 12 flight crew. The hijackers had Kalashnikov
assault rifles, Uzi pistols, homemade hand grenade
s, and two 10-stick dynamite
packs. At one point in the flight the men placed one pack of dynamite in the cockpit and one pack under a seat in the middle of the aircraft. The men linked them with detonator wire. They also took the uniforms of the cabin crew to confuse sniper
s.
Burignard recalled that the hijackers did not like seeing a lack of adherence to their Islamic beliefs; According to Burignard the hijackers objected to men and women sitting together and sharing the same toilets and women having uncovered heads. Once they took control of the aircraft the hijackers forced women with uncovered heads, including the cabin crew members, to cover their heads. Women who did not have veils used aircraft blankets to cover their heads. An elderly Algerian man told the TF1
network that the hijackers "had a kind of art in their terror. Twenty minutes of relaxation and twenty minutes of torture. You never knew what was next."
The men stated over the aircraft's cockpit radio:
Abderahmane Meziane-Cherif, the Minister of the Interior of Algeria, came to the airport control tower to begin negotiating with the hijackers. The hijackers, using the captain to speak for them, demanded the release of two Islamic Salvation Front
(FIS) political party leaders, Abassi Madani and Ali Belhadj
, who were in house arrest
; the FIS was banned in Algeria in 1992. Cherif demanded that the hijackers begin releasing children and elderly if they wanted to talk to the Algerian government. The media began arriving at the airport to cover the crisis.
At 12 Noon Alain Juppé
, Foreign Minister of France, organized a crisis team, and Charles Pasqua
, Interior Minister of France, met his aides. French Prime Minister
Édouard Balladur
was recalled from his Christmas vacation in Chamonix
, France, and other government officials were recalled from their vacations. Balladur recalled spending his entire afternoon on the telephone, trying to determine what was happening and feeling confusion. According to Balladur the Algerian authorities wanted to crack down on the terrorists and that Balladur encountered difficulties discussing the events. At one point the hijackers dropped the demand for the release of the party leaders. Two hours after the hijacking began, the hijackers asked the captain to depart for Paris so the hijackers could hold a press conference there. The captain could not take off as the aircraft boarding stairs were still attached to the A300 and the Algerian authorities blocked the runway with parked vehicles. When the captain, forced by the hijackers, asked for the removal of the boarding stairs, the Algerian authorities, determined not to give in to any of the hijacker demands, refused. The hijackers announced that they would detonate the aircraft unless the Algerian authorities gave in to the demands.
During the passport check the hijackers had discovered than an Algerian police officer was a passenger on the flight. To get the Algerian government to cave in, the hijackers came to the police officer and asked him to follow them. Kakachi recalled that the police officer, two rows behind her, was hesitant to follow the hijackers as he did not know what was going to happen. Several passengers recalled him pleading "Don't kill me, I have a wife and child!" The hijackers shot the police officer in the head. The pilots and most of the passengers initially did not know that the Algerian police officer had been killed. Dhellemme recalled that his first contact with the passenger cabin during the hijacking was when a flight attendant, allowed into the cockpit, asked the pilots if they needed anything. According to Dhellemme he asked for a glass of water from the attendant as the pilots' throats were parched and the pilots had difficulty swallowing. The attendant then whispered to the captain that the hijackers had already killed a passenger.
Algerian authorities still refused to agree to the hijackers' demands. Burgniard recalled realizing, with the other occupants, that "things were going wrong" when the hijackers came to collect another passenger. The hijackers selected 48-year-old Bui Giang To, a commercial attaché at the Embassy of Vietnam in Algeria. Burignard described To as "the real foreigner on this plane." She recalled that To was not intimidated by the hijackers and believes that this attitude upset the hijackers. The diplomat believed that he was going to be released. Instead he was shot. Dhellemme recalled that when the flight attendant appeared with a bottle of water and glasses she whispered to him that two passengers, not one, have died.
The French government wanted to bring military personnel into Algeria to safely resolve the hijacking, but the Algerian government did not want foreign military to land on Algerian soil to resolve an Algerian political crisis. Balladur said that he asked the Algerian government "extremely forcefully and urgently" to let the aircraft take off. He felt that the French government had the responsibility to solve the problem as the aircraft belonged to Air France, a French airline, and that a number of the passengers were French.
Seven hours into the hijacking the cabin was tensely calm; at that point few of the remaining passengers knew that two passengers had been killed. The aircraft was surrounded by spotlights as it was nighttime. The pilots tried to defuse the situation by talking to the hijackers and trying to gain their trust. Dhellemme explained that the beginning of a hijacking is violent, so the role of the pilot is to keep the participants calm, "buy time," show the hijackers who the crew are as people, and find details about the hijackers; then the pilot is to try to gain the trust of the hijackers.
During the night the French military gave authorization to send its forces to Majorca, Spain
; this was as close to Algeria as possible without being accused of interfering in the situation. At 8 PM the Groupe d'Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale
(GIGN) operatives boarded an Airbus A300
aircraft similar to F-GBEC, the aircraft on Flight 8969, at a military base in France. On the way to Majorca the operatives familiarized themselves with the A300 and prepared for storming the aircraft. After the aircraft arrived at Palma de Mallorca Airport
, the Algerian government insisted that French forces were not welcome in Algeria.
Édouard Balladur
flew to Paris
.
By Christmas morning new information arrived via a mole in the Armed Islamic Group:
The information arrived at the Consulate General of France in Oran, Algeria. Police confirmed this plan after a raid on a safe house
.
On Christmas
day the hijackers released some passengers; they were mostly women with young children and people with severe medical conditions. Over 170 people remained on board. The hijackers offered to release the remaining Algerian passengers, therefore the French passengers would be the ones still on board. The Algerians refused to leave the aircraft. Captain Dhellemme believes that one passenger said that he refused to leave, because if he did the crew would be killed. Dhellemme believes that the passenger's motives were sincere. By the end of Saturday the hijackers freed a total of 63 passengers.
The Algerian police used night vision
devices to identify the lead hijacker, Yahia. The government sent his mother to plead for her son to release the passengers. The government hoped that her pleas would cause Yahia to give in. The tactic failed. Zahida Kakachi, a passenger, said that Yahia became very angry about the fact that his mother was being used to get him to stop. The hijackers began to target the Frenchmen; two staff members of the Embassy of France in Algeria, a secretary and a chef, were on board. The hijackers used the chef, Yannick Beugnet, by having him plead in the microphone. The hijackers demanded that if the Algerian government did not let the A300 take off before 9:30 P.M., the hijackers would kill one passenger every 30 minutes. The French diplomat said that the Algerians assured them that the hijackers were bluffing while the French demanded that the aircraft be allowed to take off. When the deadline passed, the hijackers fatally shot the chef.http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/jet-hijackers-die-as-170-are-freed-1390663.html The door open warning light in the cockpit indicated to the pilots that another passenger had been murdered. The airline knew that the embassy employee was murdered since it listened to the conversations between the aircraft and the control tower. Philippe Legorjus, a former Air France security adviser, said in an interview that the airline employees "lived through" the event "with great emotion." According to the dramazation in Mayday TV series, passenger Zahida Kakachi recalls Lofti calmly converting two woman to Islam
, herself and another woman, though Kakachi was only pretending so that she would not enrage or upset Lofti.
The French government became informed about the events. Balladur said over the telephone to Prime Minister of Algeria
Mokdad Sifi
that the French government would hold the Algerian government responsible for the outcome if it does not allow the French government to become involved in the crisis. Several French publications stated that the Algerian government wanted to allow the plane to depart if France resumed arms shipments to Algeria. Before midnight Balladur told President of Algeria
Lamine Zeroual that France was ready to receive the Air France flight. As a result of Balladur's demands, 39 hours after the start of the hijacking, Zeroual allowed the aircraft to leave Algiers. Claude Burgniard, a flight attendant, recalled that the occupants on board were relieved that the aircraft was departing and they believed the crisis was over. Since the auxiliary power unit
, which uses four tonnes of fuel per day, ran throughout the crisis, the aircraft did not have sufficient fuel to reach Paris. Therefore the aircraft was scheduled to arrive at Marseille Provence Airport
in Marseille
and refuel there. The Mayday
episode "The Killing Machine" depicts Captain Dhellemme confronting Yahia and asking him if the aircraft would be blown up between Algiers and Marseille. He insisted that the aircraft would not be detonated. Dhellemme believed him and prepared for takeoff. In an interview Dhellemme said that he did not know if the hijackers would have given him the same answer if he was in the stage between Marseille and Paris. Burignard recalled that the hijackers, in the cockpit, seemed excited and "like kids."
squad was already in Marseille, having arrived from Majorca to a military base near Marseille, and planned to storm the aircraft while it was in Marseille. The GIGN squad practiced entering the A300 before Flight 8969 arrived in Marseille. Favier explained in an interview that the enemy was arriving in friendly territory, and the power difference would be a key element in the struggle. The Flight 8969 aircraft landed at 3:33 A.M.
Steward Claude Burgniard said that the hijackers felt that the landing in Marseille was a "magic moment" as they had arrived in France. Burgniard recalled that the airport was dark and that she only saw the lights of the A300 and a car that the A300 followed. The French authorities deliberately led the aircraft away from the terminal and into a remote corner of the airport. By 26 December the French government had received information stating that the hijackers had planned to attack Paris. Favier planned to appear conciliatory and prolong the negotiations as long as possible. He believed that the hijackers were tired, so he planned to wear them down. Alain Gehin, the Chief of Police of Marseille, spoke to the group of hijackers in the control tower. Gehin implemented Favier's strategy.
While using Dhellemme to speak for them, the hijackers asked for 27 tonnes of fuel; the aircraft needed 9-10 tonnes to fly to Paris from Marseille. The request indicated to the French authorities that the aircraft was going to be used as a firebomb or to fly the aircraft to an Islamic country sympathetic to the hijackers' cause, such as Iran
, Sudan
, or Yemen
. Hours later the authorities received word of the firebomb plots. Passengers who were released in Algiers stated that the A300 had been rigged with explosives. Demolition experts determined that the plane was likely rigged in a way that would cause it to explode. Charles Pasqua
said in an interview that the French government had decided that the aircraft was not going to leave Marseille, regardless of the consequences.
Around 8:00 A.M. the hijackers demanded that the forces let the aircraft take off by 9:40 A.M. The negotiators delayed the ultimatum by giving the aircraft additional food and water, emptying the toilet tanks, and providing vacuum cleaners. The GIGN operatives servicing the aircraft were disguised as regular airport personnel. They discovered the aircraft doors were not blocked or booby trap
ped. The men planted eavesdropping devices and "Cannon" microphones on the A300's fuselage and windows. Favier's group asked the hijackers if they would rather do a press conference in Marseille instead of Paris, since all of the major press is in Marseille. The hijackers agreed to hold a press conference on the A300. The negotiators requested that the front of the aircraft would be cleared for the press conference. In fact this was to create an area for the GIGN during the storming of the aircraft. Favier explained in an interview that the press conference was an important tactic as it allowed the passengers to be moved to the rear of the aircraft. The hijackers did not realize that the doors of the A300 could be opened from the outside.
Twelve hours after the A300 arrived at Marseille, the GIGN knew how many hijackers were on board and their location on the aircraft with the help of eavesdropping devices, infrared vision equipment, and "cannon" microphones. It intended to wait until sundown to take advantage of the darkness. The occupants of the aircraft were unaware of the GIGN's true motives, and the militants were confused about why the press had not yet arrived. Yahia, frustrated by the absence of the press, ordered the pilot to move the aircraft. Dellemme parked the aircraft at the foot of the airport control tower and in close proximity to the terminal and other aircraft. The hijackers demanded an immediate press conference. If the hijackers detonated the aircraft at that point, many casualties would result.
This was a tactical disadvantage for the GIGN; the positions were based on the aircraft being parked where the French authorities ordered the placement of the A300. When the aircraft moved the GIGN had to quickly reorganize its forces. Favier placed snipers on the roof so they would have a view of the cockpit. He organized a cavalry charge of three passenger boarding stairs and thirty men to take over the aircraft. Favier planned to have two teams, each with 11 people, open the rear left and rear right doors of the A300. A third team of eight would open the front right door. The forces planned to isolate the cockpit, with Yahia, from the rest of the aircraft.
By 5 P.M. the authorities had not delivered any amount of fuel to the A300. Yahia entered the cabin to choose a fourth person to kill. He selected the youngest member of the Air France crew, who had told the hijackers that he was an atheist. The episode "The Killing Machine" of the Mayday
(Air Crash Investigations, Air Emergency) programme states that Yahia felt reluctant to kill a fourth passenger at that point. Burignard stated in an interview that she did not know whether Yahia had decided not to execute the crew member; she knew that he kept delaying the execution. Instead the hijackers opened the door and fired around the aircraft. Zahida Kakachi, a passenger, recalled that the hijackers began reciting verses from the Qur'an
on the public address system. The verses were prayers for the dead. According to Kakachi the passengers were silent and began to feel panicked. The hijackers knew the negotiators were in the control tower, so through the side window of the cockpit they began to fire automatic machine guns towards the control tower. Philippe Legorjus, who at the time was the airline's security adviser, recalled that glass shattered all around the negotiators. Captain Dhellemme said that throughout the time in Marseille there had been tension, but "nothing like what seemed to be about to happen." French Prime Minister
Édouard Balladur
allowed Favier to take whatever actions he felt were necessary; after the hijackers fired at the control tower, Favier decided to begin the raid.
Flight attendant Claude Burgniard described the firefight as "the apocalypse". Christophe Morin, a flight attendant, recalled that the GIGN ordered passengers and crew to get down as low as possible with their hands over their heads, hide, and then to not move. Morin described the situation as "violent". He recalled putting his overcoat over his head so he would not see the tracer bullets and other occurrences during the raid. Morin said that he tried to help a female passenger next to him escape, but she was too fat and Morin was unable to move her, so the two held hands. Pilot Bernard Dhellemme said that he was in "a rather bad spot", so he crouched and made himself "as small as possible." His mind made him believe that his body could stop bullets.
A few minutes after the beginning of the assault, most of the passengers had escaped. At that point three of the four hijackers were fatally injured. Dhellemme recalled that the cockpit only had himself, the flight engineer, and one hijacker. Dhellemme said that the hijacker could have killed him and his colleagues out of spite, but instead did not. In an interview, Denis Favier explained that there likely was a mutual recognition and "respect" between the hijackers and the hostages. He believes the bonds between the hijackers and hostages helped save lives of passengers and crew in the conflict.
News footage showed a GIGN man knocked down the front right airstair when a bullet struck his gun and detonated the cartridges. The remaining hijacker kept the GIGN at bay for 20 minutes. As his ammunition was depleted, he died from a gunshot wound. The operatives were not sure which men were the hijackers and how many were still alive, so the forces suspected all of the men inside. The flight engineer, Alain Bossuat, radioed the tower stating that the hijackers were dead and that there were no more left. Dhellemme said that when the forces entered the aircraft, they ordered him to put his hands on his head. Dhellemme said that, after the hijacking ordeal had run its course, he refused to leave with his hands on his head and be "punished like a child." Burgniard said that when she saw Bossuat handcuffed, the cabin crew told the forces to let him go as the individual was the flight engineer. At 5:35 PM, Favier radioed to the tower that the incident was over; the incident unfolded in 54 hours.
All of the hijackers died. The 166Note a remaining passengers and crew survived the 20-minute gun battle. Of the 154Note a remaining passengers, 13 received minor injuries. Nine of the 30 GIGN operatives received injuries; of them, one received serious wounds. Three crew members received injuries. Dhellemme received bullets in his right elbow and thigh. Bossuat received minor injuries; the dead bodies of two hijackers had shielded Dhellemme and Bossuat from gunfire. Borderie, the most seriously injured, fractured his elbow and thigh from the 16-foot drop. Favier said that he determined that the operation was a success since none of the GIGN received fatal injuries. French Prime Minister
Édouard Balladur
said that the events unfolded "exceptionally well."
. Three of the priests were French, while one was Belgian.
The crew of the A300 and the GIGN forces received high national honors. Charles Pasqua
, then the Minister of the Interior, said that throughout the ordeal the crew "rose to the occasion." Bernard Dellemme returned to flying and worked for Air France for nine years before retiring. Flight attendant Claude Burgniard said that she "kept seeing the faces" of the three passengers who had been executed; when she received her medal she realized that she had helped save 173 people; this allowed her to mourn and get over the incident. Burgniard said that she does not wear the medal, but that she felt like she deserved it. Burgniard, who also received a message of thanks from the airline, never again worked for Air France. Flight attendant Christophe Morin stopped working for Air France and began to work for a charitable organization.
A former militant group leader admitted that the men had planned to detonate the aircraft over the Eiffel Tower
. The militant groups never again attempted this plot. Pasqua said that if the militants crashed an aircraft on the Eiffel Tower or the Élysées Palace
they would have committed what they would believe to be "an extraordinary feat."
Morin and passenger Zahida Kakachi co-authored the book Le vol Alger-Marseille : Journal d'otages.
Air France discontinued the number "Flight 8969" after the hijacking. Flights between Algiers and Paris are now Flights 1555, 1855, 2155, and 2455 (operating to Charles de Gaulle instead of Orly). Flight 8969 is now used as a Air France codeshare route with the flight being operated by Delta Air Lines
on its Green Bay, WI to Detroit, MI route.
verses and tried to reassure the Algerian passengers. Witness accounts said that they "terrorized" non-Algerians.
neighborhood of Algiers. The negotiators said that Yahia spoke "approximate" French language
and always ended his sentences in "Insha'Allah
" ("God willing"). Several passengers said all but one of the hijackers had no beards and closely cropped hair. A woman said that the men "were polite and, correct" and that they "had the determined air of cold-blooded killers." Another passenger said the hijackers "seemed excited, very euphoric" and that they told the occupants that they would teach the French and the world a lesson and show what they were capable of doing.
As the hijacking progressed, the passengers recognized the personalities of the hijackers. Claude Burgniard, a flight attendant, recalled that the crew and passengers gave nicknames to the hijackers "to make things simpler." Yahia, the leader, had given his name, so the passengers called him by that name. According to Burignard, Lotfi had a "peculiar" character, "was always on a knife edge," and "the most fanatic" and "the most fundamentalist" of the hijackers. Therefore he received the nickname "Madman" from the passengers. According to Burignard, Lotfi was the hijacker who insisted that the passengers follow Islamic law. Lotfi found women having their heads uncovered "intolerable," making him very angry. One hijacker did not give his name to the passengers, so they called him "Bill." Burignard stated that Bill was "a little bit simple" and "more of a goatherd than a terrorist." She said his role as a hijacker was "an error in casting." Burignard remembered that the occupants wondered why Bill was there and that they saw Bill appearing as if he wondered why he was there. The hijacker nicknamed "The Killer" shot the hostages who the hijackers had targeted.
television series (also known as Air Emergency or Air Crash Investigation) as well as in Zero Hour
television series episode Shoot-Out in Marseille. Bernard Dhellemme, the captain of Flight 8969, agreed to make his first ever television interview for Mayday as long as he appeared under silhouette; he requested this as he felt the events were still threatening to him. Colonel Denis Favier, then a major who was the head of the GIGN counter-terrorist unit assigned to the flight, also requested to keep his face obscured as members of the public believed that the militants offered a reward for an assassination of Favier.
A one-hour documentary, episode 3 of the UK BBC2 television series "The Age of Terror" transmitted at 21:00 BST on 29 April 2008, covered this hijacking in depth, and included interviews with passenger, crew, GIGN commando, and government official eyewitnesses, including the co-pilot who jumped out of the cockpit window. It was stated explicitly that a mole
with the GIA terrorists informed the French, but not Algerian, authorities that the intention was to use the aircraft as a missile to attack Paris.
A French film called L'Assaut has been made with the collaboration and the advices of the GIGN .
Sources differ: TIME magazine states there were initially 227 passengers, while Peter Taylor said "Most of the 220 passengers and 12 crew were settling into their seats ... around 11 am four armed men appeared in the cabin". Both TIME and Taylor state 63 Algerians were freed. Of those freed at the end TIME claims 173 passengers and crew, while Taylor's figures indicate 166 (154 passengers and 12 crew); Aviation Safety Network indicates 163 remaining alive (170 occupants with 7 fatalities) at 17:00 26 December 1994.
Air France
Air France , stylised as AIRFRANCE, is the French flag carrier headquartered in Tremblay-en-France, , and is one of the world's largest airlines. It is a subsidiary of the Air France-KLM Group and a founding member of the SkyTeam global airline alliance...
flight that was hijack
Aircraft hijacking
Aircraft hijacking is the unlawful seizure of an aircraft by an individual or a group. In most cases, the pilot is forced to fly according to the orders of the hijackers. Occasionally, however, the hijackers have flown the aircraft themselves, such as the September 11 attacks of 2001...
ed on 24 December 1994 by the Armed Islamic Group
Armed Islamic Group
The Armed Islamic Group is an Islamist organisation that wants to overthrow the Algerian government and replace it with an Islamic state...
(GIA) at Algiers, where they killed three passengers, with the intention to crash it on the Eiffel tower
Eiffel Tower
The Eiffel Tower is a puddle iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris. Built in 1889, it has become both a global icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world...
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. When the aircraft reached Marseille
Marseille
Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...
, the GIGN
Groupe d'Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale
The National Gendarmerie Intervention Group, commonly abbreviated GIGN , is a special operations unit of the French Armed Forces. It is part of the National Gendarmerie and is trained to perform counter-terrorist and hostage rescue missions in France or anywhere else in the world.The GIGN was...
, an intervention group of the French Gendarmerie, stormed the plane and killed all four hijackers. The GIA's plan appeared to foreshadow the 11 September attacks. Thomas Sancton of TIME
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine described the event as "one of the most successful anti-terrorist operations in history."
The flight
Algeria was in a state of civil warAlgerian Civil War
The Algerian Civil War was an armed conflict between the Algerian government and various Islamist rebel groups which began in 1991. It is estimated to have cost between 150,000 and 200,000 lives, in a population of about 25,010,000 in 1990 and 31,193,917 in 2000.More than 70 journalists were...
. Aircraft going to Algiers faced the possibility of missile attacks. As a result Air France's flights to Algiers had crews entirely made of people who volunteered for the route. Air France had asked government officials if it absolutely had to continue flying to Algeria; as of the time of the hijacking there had been no replies. Bernard Dhellemme was the captain of the flight. Jean-Paul Borderie was the copilot, and Alain Bossuat was the flight engineer. The Airbus A300B2-1C, tail number F-GBEC, went on its first flight on 28 February 1980.
24 December
On 24 December 1994, at Houari Boumedienne AirportHouari Boumedienne Airport
Houari Boumediene Airport , also known as Algiers Airport, is an international airport serving Algiers, the capital of Algeria. It is located east southeast of the city.The airport is named after Houari Boumediene, a former president of Algeria...
, Algiers, Algeria, four armed men dressed as Algerian presidential police boarded Air France Flight 8969 bound to depart for Orly Airport
Orly Airport
Paris-Orly Airport is an airport located partially in Orly and partially in Villeneuve-le-Roi, south of Paris, France. It has flights to cities in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Caribbean, North America and Southeast Asia. Prior to the construction of Charles de Gaulle Airport, Orly was...
, Paris at 11:15 A.M. The men had blue uniforms with Air Algérie
Air Algérie
Air Algérie SpA is the national flag carrier airline of Algeria, with its head office in the Immeuble El-Djazair in Algiers. With flights operating from Houari Boumedienne Airport, Air Algérie operates scheduled international services to 39 destinations in 28 countries in Europe, North America,...
logos. Their presence originally did not cause alarm. They began inspecting the passengers' passports. Claude Burgniard, a flight attendant
Flight attendant
Flight attendants or cabin crew are members of an aircrew employed by airlines primarily to ensure the safety and comfort of passengers aboard commercial flights, on select business jet aircraft, and on some military aircraft.-History:The role of a flight attendant derives from that of similar...
, recalled noticing that the "police" were armed; she considered this as unusual as the Algerian police were not usually armed while performing checks. The Algerian military felt suspicion when it noticed that the Air France flight had what appeared to be an unauthorized delay, so members began surrounding the aircraft. Zahida Kakachi, a passenger, recalled seeing a group of Algerian special forces, known as "ninja
Ninja
A or was a covert agent or mercenary of feudal Japan specializing in unorthodox arts of war. The functions of the ninja included espionage, sabotage, infiltration, and assassination, as well as open combat in certain situations...
s," outside the aircraft. Kakachi recalled hearing one of the "police" say "talout," a word for "infidel
Infidel
An infidel is one who has no religious beliefs, or who doubts or rejects the central tenets of a particular religion – especially in reference to Christianity or Islam....
", upon seeing the "ninjas" gathering outside of the A300; therefore she discovered that they were terrorists. The four men revealed then that they were not police. An Algerian mechanic recalled that he knew that the men were militants when one yelled "Allah
Allah
Allah is a word for God used in the context of Islam. In Arabic, the word means simply "God". It is used primarily by Muslims and Bahá'ís, and often, albeit not exclusively, used by Arabic-speaking Eastern Catholic Christians, Maltese Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Christians, Mizrahi Jews and...
is Great!" The men hijacked the aircraft because, as a part of the national airline Air France, it was a symbol of France.
Abdul Abdullah Yahia and the other three members of the Armed Islamic Group
Armed Islamic Group
The Armed Islamic Group is an Islamist organisation that wants to overthrow the Algerian government and replace it with an Islamic state...
(Groupe Islamique Armé, or GIA) brandished firearms and explosives and demanded cooperation from the 220 passengers and 12 flight crew. The hijackers had Kalashnikov
AK-47
The AK-47 is a selective-fire, gas-operated 7.62×39mm assault rifle, first developed in the Soviet Union by Mikhail Kalashnikov. It is officially known as Avtomat Kalashnikova . It is also known as a Kalashnikov, an "AK", or in Russian slang, Kalash.Design work on the AK-47 began in the last year...
assault rifles, Uzi pistols, homemade hand grenade
Hand grenade
A hand grenade is any small bomb that can be thrown by hand. Hand grenades are classified into three categories, explosive grenades, chemical and gas grenades. Explosive grenades are the most commonly used in modern warfare, and are designed to detonate after impact or after a set amount of time...
s, and two 10-stick dynamite
Dynamite
Dynamite is an explosive material based on nitroglycerin, initially using diatomaceous earth , or another absorbent substance such as powdered shells, clay, sawdust, or wood pulp. Dynamites using organic materials such as sawdust are less stable and such use has been generally discontinued...
packs. At one point in the flight the men placed one pack of dynamite in the cockpit and one pack under a seat in the middle of the aircraft. The men linked them with detonator wire. They also took the uniforms of the cabin crew to confuse sniper
Sniper
A sniper is a marksman who shoots targets from concealed positions or distances exceeding the capabilities of regular personnel. Snipers typically have specialized training and distinct high-precision rifles....
s.
Burignard recalled that the hijackers did not like seeing a lack of adherence to their Islamic beliefs; According to Burignard the hijackers objected to men and women sitting together and sharing the same toilets and women having uncovered heads. Once they took control of the aircraft the hijackers forced women with uncovered heads, including the cabin crew members, to cover their heads. Women who did not have veils used aircraft blankets to cover their heads. An elderly Algerian man told the TF1
TF1
TF1 is a national French TV channel, controlled by TF1 Group, whose major share-holder is Bouygues. TF1's average market share of 24% makes it the most popular domestic network...
network that the hijackers "had a kind of art in their terror. Twenty minutes of relaxation and twenty minutes of torture. You never knew what was next."
The men stated over the aircraft's cockpit radio:
Abderahmane Meziane-Cherif, the Minister of the Interior of Algeria, came to the airport control tower to begin negotiating with the hijackers. The hijackers, using the captain to speak for them, demanded the release of two Islamic Salvation Front
Islamic Salvation Front
The Islamic Salvation Front is an outlawed Islamist political party in Algeria.-Goals:...
(FIS) political party leaders, Abassi Madani and Ali Belhadj
Ali Belhadj
Ali Belhadj was the Vice-President of the Islamic Salvation Front .Born in 1956 in Tunis to parents of Mauritanian origin from the wilaya of Adrar in Algeria, Belhadj became a teacher of Arabic and an Islamist activist in the 1970s...
, who were in house arrest
House arrest
In justice and law, house arrest is a measure by which a person is confined by the authorities to his or her residence. Travel is usually restricted, if allowed at all...
; the FIS was banned in Algeria in 1992. Cherif demanded that the hijackers begin releasing children and elderly if they wanted to talk to the Algerian government. The media began arriving at the airport to cover the crisis.
At 12 Noon Alain Juppé
Alain Juppé
Alain Marie Juppé is a French politician currently serving as the Minister of Foreign Affairs. He also served as Prime Minister of France from 1995 to 1997 under President Jacques Chirac and the Minister of Defence and Veterans Affairs from 2010 to 2011...
, Foreign Minister of France, organized a crisis team, and Charles Pasqua
Charles Pasqua
Charles Pasqua is a French businessman and Gaullist politician. He was Interior Minister from 1986 to 1988, under Jacques Chirac's cohabitation government, and also from 1993 to 1995, under the government of Edouard Balladur...
, Interior Minister of France, met his aides. French Prime Minister
Prime Minister of France
The Prime Minister of France in the Fifth Republic is the head of government and of the Council of Ministers of France. The head of state is the President of the French Republic...
Édouard Balladur
Édouard Balladur
Édouard Balladur is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 29 March 1993 to 10 May 1995.-Biography:Balladur was born in İzmir, Turkey, to an Armenian Catholic family with five children and long-standing ties to France...
was recalled from his Christmas vacation in Chamonix
Chamonix
Chamonix-Mont-Blanc or, more commonly, Chamonix is a commune in the Haute-Savoie département in the Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France. It was the site of the 1924 Winter Olympics, the first Winter Olympics...
, France, and other government officials were recalled from their vacations. Balladur recalled spending his entire afternoon on the telephone, trying to determine what was happening and feeling confusion. According to Balladur the Algerian authorities wanted to crack down on the terrorists and that Balladur encountered difficulties discussing the events. At one point the hijackers dropped the demand for the release of the party leaders. Two hours after the hijacking began, the hijackers asked the captain to depart for Paris so the hijackers could hold a press conference there. The captain could not take off as the aircraft boarding stairs were still attached to the A300 and the Algerian authorities blocked the runway with parked vehicles. When the captain, forced by the hijackers, asked for the removal of the boarding stairs, the Algerian authorities, determined not to give in to any of the hijacker demands, refused. The hijackers announced that they would detonate the aircraft unless the Algerian authorities gave in to the demands.
During the passport check the hijackers had discovered than an Algerian police officer was a passenger on the flight. To get the Algerian government to cave in, the hijackers came to the police officer and asked him to follow them. Kakachi recalled that the police officer, two rows behind her, was hesitant to follow the hijackers as he did not know what was going to happen. Several passengers recalled him pleading "Don't kill me, I have a wife and child!" The hijackers shot the police officer in the head. The pilots and most of the passengers initially did not know that the Algerian police officer had been killed. Dhellemme recalled that his first contact with the passenger cabin during the hijacking was when a flight attendant, allowed into the cockpit, asked the pilots if they needed anything. According to Dhellemme he asked for a glass of water from the attendant as the pilots' throats were parched and the pilots had difficulty swallowing. The attendant then whispered to the captain that the hijackers had already killed a passenger.
Algerian authorities still refused to agree to the hijackers' demands. Burgniard recalled realizing, with the other occupants, that "things were going wrong" when the hijackers came to collect another passenger. The hijackers selected 48-year-old Bui Giang To, a commercial attaché at the Embassy of Vietnam in Algeria. Burignard described To as "the real foreigner on this plane." She recalled that To was not intimidated by the hijackers and believes that this attitude upset the hijackers. The diplomat believed that he was going to be released. Instead he was shot. Dhellemme recalled that when the flight attendant appeared with a bottle of water and glasses she whispered to him that two passengers, not one, have died.
The French government wanted to bring military personnel into Algeria to safely resolve the hijacking, but the Algerian government did not want foreign military to land on Algerian soil to resolve an Algerian political crisis. Balladur said that he asked the Algerian government "extremely forcefully and urgently" to let the aircraft take off. He felt that the French government had the responsibility to solve the problem as the aircraft belonged to Air France, a French airline, and that a number of the passengers were French.
Seven hours into the hijacking the cabin was tensely calm; at that point few of the remaining passengers knew that two passengers had been killed. The aircraft was surrounded by spotlights as it was nighttime. The pilots tried to defuse the situation by talking to the hijackers and trying to gain their trust. Dhellemme explained that the beginning of a hijacking is violent, so the role of the pilot is to keep the participants calm, "buy time," show the hijackers who the crew are as people, and find details about the hijackers; then the pilot is to try to gain the trust of the hijackers.
During the night the French military gave authorization to send its forces to Majorca, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
; this was as close to Algeria as possible without being accused of interfering in the situation. At 8 PM the Groupe d'Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale
Groupe d'Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale
The National Gendarmerie Intervention Group, commonly abbreviated GIGN , is a special operations unit of the French Armed Forces. It is part of the National Gendarmerie and is trained to perform counter-terrorist and hostage rescue missions in France or anywhere else in the world.The GIGN was...
(GIGN) operatives boarded an Airbus A300
Airbus A300
The Airbus A300 is a short- to medium-range widebody jet airliner. Launched in 1972 as the world's first twin-engined widebody, it was the first product of Airbus Industrie, a consortium of European aerospace companies, wholly owned today by EADS...
aircraft similar to F-GBEC, the aircraft on Flight 8969, at a military base in France. On the way to Majorca the operatives familiarized themselves with the A300 and prepared for storming the aircraft. After the aircraft arrived at Palma de Mallorca Airport
Palma de Mallorca Airport
Palma de Mallorca Airport is an airport located east of Palma, Majorca, adjacent to the village of Can Pastilla. Also known as Son Sant Joan Airport or Aeroport de Son Sant Joan, it is the third largest airport in Spain, after Madrid's Barajas Airport and Barcelona Airport...
, the Algerian government insisted that French forces were not welcome in Algeria.
25 December
The pilot toured the cabin at about 2 A.M. Dhellemme said that the cabin was "calm" during that time. On Christmas Morning, French Prime MinisterPrime Minister of France
The Prime Minister of France in the Fifth Republic is the head of government and of the Council of Ministers of France. The head of state is the President of the French Republic...
Édouard Balladur
Édouard Balladur
Édouard Balladur is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 29 March 1993 to 10 May 1995.-Biography:Balladur was born in İzmir, Turkey, to an Armenian Catholic family with five children and long-standing ties to France...
flew to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
.
By Christmas morning new information arrived via a mole in the Armed Islamic Group:
The information arrived at the Consulate General of France in Oran, Algeria. Police confirmed this plan after a raid on a safe house
Safe house
In the jargon of law enforcement and intelligence agencies, a safe house is a secure location, suitable for hiding witnesses, agents or other persons perceived as being in danger...
.
On Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
day the hijackers released some passengers; they were mostly women with young children and people with severe medical conditions. Over 170 people remained on board. The hijackers offered to release the remaining Algerian passengers, therefore the French passengers would be the ones still on board. The Algerians refused to leave the aircraft. Captain Dhellemme believes that one passenger said that he refused to leave, because if he did the crew would be killed. Dhellemme believes that the passenger's motives were sincere. By the end of Saturday the hijackers freed a total of 63 passengers.
The Algerian police used night vision
Night vision
Night vision is the ability to see in low light conditions. Whether by biological or technological means, night vision is made possible by a combination of two approaches: sufficient spectral range, and sufficient intensity range...
devices to identify the lead hijacker, Yahia. The government sent his mother to plead for her son to release the passengers. The government hoped that her pleas would cause Yahia to give in. The tactic failed. Zahida Kakachi, a passenger, said that Yahia became very angry about the fact that his mother was being used to get him to stop. The hijackers began to target the Frenchmen; two staff members of the Embassy of France in Algeria, a secretary and a chef, were on board. The hijackers used the chef, Yannick Beugnet, by having him plead in the microphone. The hijackers demanded that if the Algerian government did not let the A300 take off before 9:30 P.M., the hijackers would kill one passenger every 30 minutes. The French diplomat said that the Algerians assured them that the hijackers were bluffing while the French demanded that the aircraft be allowed to take off. When the deadline passed, the hijackers fatally shot the chef.http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/jet-hijackers-die-as-170-are-freed-1390663.html The door open warning light in the cockpit indicated to the pilots that another passenger had been murdered. The airline knew that the embassy employee was murdered since it listened to the conversations between the aircraft and the control tower. Philippe Legorjus, a former Air France security adviser, said in an interview that the airline employees "lived through" the event "with great emotion." According to the dramazation in Mayday TV series, passenger Zahida Kakachi recalls Lofti calmly converting two woman to Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
, herself and another woman, though Kakachi was only pretending so that she would not enrage or upset Lofti.
The French government became informed about the events. Balladur said over the telephone to Prime Minister of Algeria
Prime Minister of Algeria
The Prime Minister is the head of government of Algeria.The Prime Minister is appointed by the President of Algeria, along with other ministers and members of the government that the new Prime Minister recommends. The People's National Assembly must approve the legislative program of the new...
Mokdad Sifi
Mokdad Sifi
Mokdad Sifi is an Algerian politician. Sifi was Prime Minister from 11 April 1994 to 31 December 1995. He was a Member of Parliament and once considered running for the Presidency. However, Sifi withdrew in April 1999 along with six of the seven other candidates, allowing the only remaining...
that the French government would hold the Algerian government responsible for the outcome if it does not allow the French government to become involved in the crisis. Several French publications stated that the Algerian government wanted to allow the plane to depart if France resumed arms shipments to Algeria. Before midnight Balladur told President of Algeria
President of Algeria
The President of Algeria is the head of state and chief executive of Algeria, as well as the Commander-in-Chief of the Algerian armed forces.-History of the office:...
Lamine Zeroual that France was ready to receive the Air France flight. As a result of Balladur's demands, 39 hours after the start of the hijacking, Zeroual allowed the aircraft to leave Algiers. Claude Burgniard, a flight attendant, recalled that the occupants on board were relieved that the aircraft was departing and they believed the crisis was over. Since the auxiliary power unit
Auxiliary power unit
An auxiliary power unit is a device on a vehicle that provides energy for functions other than propulsion. They are commonly found on large aircraft, as well as some large land vehicles.-Function:...
, which uses four tonnes of fuel per day, ran throughout the crisis, the aircraft did not have sufficient fuel to reach Paris. Therefore the aircraft was scheduled to arrive at Marseille Provence Airport
Marseille Provence Airport
Marseille Provence Airport or Aéroport de Marseille Provence is an airport located 27 km northwest of Marseille, on the territory of Marignane, both communes of the Bouches-du-Rhône département in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur région of France...
in Marseille
Marseille
Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...
and refuel there. The Mayday
Mayday (TV series)
Mayday, also known as Air Crash Investigation in the United Kingdom, Australia and Asia and Air Emergency and Air Disasters in the United States, is a Canadian documentary television programme produced by Cineflix investigating air crashes, near-crashes and other disasters...
episode "The Killing Machine" depicts Captain Dhellemme confronting Yahia and asking him if the aircraft would be blown up between Algiers and Marseille. He insisted that the aircraft would not be detonated. Dhellemme believed him and prepared for takeoff. In an interview Dhellemme said that he did not know if the hijackers would have given him the same answer if he was in the stage between Marseille and Paris. Burignard recalled that the hijackers, in the cockpit, seemed excited and "like kids."
26 December
The aircraft approached Marseille during the morning of 26 December. The hijackers did not know that Major Denis Favier's GIGNGroupe d'Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale
The National Gendarmerie Intervention Group, commonly abbreviated GIGN , is a special operations unit of the French Armed Forces. It is part of the National Gendarmerie and is trained to perform counter-terrorist and hostage rescue missions in France or anywhere else in the world.The GIGN was...
squad was already in Marseille, having arrived from Majorca to a military base near Marseille, and planned to storm the aircraft while it was in Marseille. The GIGN squad practiced entering the A300 before Flight 8969 arrived in Marseille. Favier explained in an interview that the enemy was arriving in friendly territory, and the power difference would be a key element in the struggle. The Flight 8969 aircraft landed at 3:33 A.M.
Steward Claude Burgniard said that the hijackers felt that the landing in Marseille was a "magic moment" as they had arrived in France. Burgniard recalled that the airport was dark and that she only saw the lights of the A300 and a car that the A300 followed. The French authorities deliberately led the aircraft away from the terminal and into a remote corner of the airport. By 26 December the French government had received information stating that the hijackers had planned to attack Paris. Favier planned to appear conciliatory and prolong the negotiations as long as possible. He believed that the hijackers were tired, so he planned to wear them down. Alain Gehin, the Chief of Police of Marseille, spoke to the group of hijackers in the control tower. Gehin implemented Favier's strategy.
While using Dhellemme to speak for them, the hijackers asked for 27 tonnes of fuel; the aircraft needed 9-10 tonnes to fly to Paris from Marseille. The request indicated to the French authorities that the aircraft was going to be used as a firebomb or to fly the aircraft to an Islamic country sympathetic to the hijackers' cause, such as Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
, Sudan
Sudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
, or Yemen
Yemen
The Republic of Yemen , commonly known as Yemen , is a country located in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east....
. Hours later the authorities received word of the firebomb plots. Passengers who were released in Algiers stated that the A300 had been rigged with explosives. Demolition experts determined that the plane was likely rigged in a way that would cause it to explode. Charles Pasqua
Charles Pasqua
Charles Pasqua is a French businessman and Gaullist politician. He was Interior Minister from 1986 to 1988, under Jacques Chirac's cohabitation government, and also from 1993 to 1995, under the government of Edouard Balladur...
said in an interview that the French government had decided that the aircraft was not going to leave Marseille, regardless of the consequences.
Around 8:00 A.M. the hijackers demanded that the forces let the aircraft take off by 9:40 A.M. The negotiators delayed the ultimatum by giving the aircraft additional food and water, emptying the toilet tanks, and providing vacuum cleaners. The GIGN operatives servicing the aircraft were disguised as regular airport personnel. They discovered the aircraft doors were not blocked or booby trap
Booby trap
A booby trap is a device designed to harm or surprise a person, unknowingly triggered by the presence or actions of the victim. As the word trap implies, they often have some form of bait designed to lure the victim towards it. However, in other cases the device is placed on busy roads or is...
ped. The men planted eavesdropping devices and "Cannon" microphones on the A300's fuselage and windows. Favier's group asked the hijackers if they would rather do a press conference in Marseille instead of Paris, since all of the major press is in Marseille. The hijackers agreed to hold a press conference on the A300. The negotiators requested that the front of the aircraft would be cleared for the press conference. In fact this was to create an area for the GIGN during the storming of the aircraft. Favier explained in an interview that the press conference was an important tactic as it allowed the passengers to be moved to the rear of the aircraft. The hijackers did not realize that the doors of the A300 could be opened from the outside.
Twelve hours after the A300 arrived at Marseille, the GIGN knew how many hijackers were on board and their location on the aircraft with the help of eavesdropping devices, infrared vision equipment, and "cannon" microphones. It intended to wait until sundown to take advantage of the darkness. The occupants of the aircraft were unaware of the GIGN's true motives, and the militants were confused about why the press had not yet arrived. Yahia, frustrated by the absence of the press, ordered the pilot to move the aircraft. Dellemme parked the aircraft at the foot of the airport control tower and in close proximity to the terminal and other aircraft. The hijackers demanded an immediate press conference. If the hijackers detonated the aircraft at that point, many casualties would result.
This was a tactical disadvantage for the GIGN; the positions were based on the aircraft being parked where the French authorities ordered the placement of the A300. When the aircraft moved the GIGN had to quickly reorganize its forces. Favier placed snipers on the roof so they would have a view of the cockpit. He organized a cavalry charge of three passenger boarding stairs and thirty men to take over the aircraft. Favier planned to have two teams, each with 11 people, open the rear left and rear right doors of the A300. A third team of eight would open the front right door. The forces planned to isolate the cockpit, with Yahia, from the rest of the aircraft.
By 5 P.M. the authorities had not delivered any amount of fuel to the A300. Yahia entered the cabin to choose a fourth person to kill. He selected the youngest member of the Air France crew, who had told the hijackers that he was an atheist. The episode "The Killing Machine" of the Mayday
Mayday (TV series)
Mayday, also known as Air Crash Investigation in the United Kingdom, Australia and Asia and Air Emergency and Air Disasters in the United States, is a Canadian documentary television programme produced by Cineflix investigating air crashes, near-crashes and other disasters...
(Air Crash Investigations, Air Emergency) programme states that Yahia felt reluctant to kill a fourth passenger at that point. Burignard stated in an interview that she did not know whether Yahia had decided not to execute the crew member; she knew that he kept delaying the execution. Instead the hijackers opened the door and fired around the aircraft. Zahida Kakachi, a passenger, recalled that the hijackers began reciting verses from the Qur'an
Qur'an
The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...
on the public address system. The verses were prayers for the dead. According to Kakachi the passengers were silent and began to feel panicked. The hijackers knew the negotiators were in the control tower, so through the side window of the cockpit they began to fire automatic machine guns towards the control tower. Philippe Legorjus, who at the time was the airline's security adviser, recalled that glass shattered all around the negotiators. Captain Dhellemme said that throughout the time in Marseille there had been tension, but "nothing like what seemed to be about to happen." French Prime Minister
Prime Minister of France
The Prime Minister of France in the Fifth Republic is the head of government and of the Council of Ministers of France. The head of state is the President of the French Republic...
Édouard Balladur
Édouard Balladur
Édouard Balladur is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 29 March 1993 to 10 May 1995.-Biography:Balladur was born in İzmir, Turkey, to an Armenian Catholic family with five children and long-standing ties to France...
allowed Favier to take whatever actions he felt were necessary; after the hijackers fired at the control tower, Favier decided to begin the raid.
Raid
When the hijackers noticed airstairs moving towards them, they realized that an assault was about to take place. The first airstair reached the front right door, but it was positioned a little bit higher than the door, so there was a delay before the forces repositioned the airstair and entered the aircraft. The reason why the stairs were too high was that the GIGN had trained on an empty aircraft, thus the suspensions were higher in the training. The hijackers returned fire, attacking the GIGN forces. Then the two other units entered the rear of the aircraft. The participants fired hundreds of bullets. The hijackers fired through the skin of the aircraft. Grenades erupted and smoke went through the cabin. The GIGN's concussion grenades temporarily blinded and deafened occupants, allowing the GIGN to storm the aircraft. Of the hijackers' homemade grenades, one detonated, causing little damage. The snipers on the tower could not get a clear shot into the aircraft as the copilot, Jean-Paul Borderie, blocked the view of the snipers. Through a window, Borderie jumped out of the cockpit and staggered away. With the view unobstructed, the snipers began firing into the cockpit, while the GIGN evacuated passengers in the rear of the aircraft.Flight attendant Claude Burgniard described the firefight as "the apocalypse". Christophe Morin, a flight attendant, recalled that the GIGN ordered passengers and crew to get down as low as possible with their hands over their heads, hide, and then to not move. Morin described the situation as "violent". He recalled putting his overcoat over his head so he would not see the tracer bullets and other occurrences during the raid. Morin said that he tried to help a female passenger next to him escape, but she was too fat and Morin was unable to move her, so the two held hands. Pilot Bernard Dhellemme said that he was in "a rather bad spot", so he crouched and made himself "as small as possible." His mind made him believe that his body could stop bullets.
A few minutes after the beginning of the assault, most of the passengers had escaped. At that point three of the four hijackers were fatally injured. Dhellemme recalled that the cockpit only had himself, the flight engineer, and one hijacker. Dhellemme said that the hijacker could have killed him and his colleagues out of spite, but instead did not. In an interview, Denis Favier explained that there likely was a mutual recognition and "respect" between the hijackers and the hostages. He believes the bonds between the hijackers and hostages helped save lives of passengers and crew in the conflict.
News footage showed a GIGN man knocked down the front right airstair when a bullet struck his gun and detonated the cartridges. The remaining hijacker kept the GIGN at bay for 20 minutes. As his ammunition was depleted, he died from a gunshot wound. The operatives were not sure which men were the hijackers and how many were still alive, so the forces suspected all of the men inside. The flight engineer, Alain Bossuat, radioed the tower stating that the hijackers were dead and that there were no more left. Dhellemme said that when the forces entered the aircraft, they ordered him to put his hands on his head. Dhellemme said that, after the hijacking ordeal had run its course, he refused to leave with his hands on his head and be "punished like a child." Burgniard said that when she saw Bossuat handcuffed, the cabin crew told the forces to let him go as the individual was the flight engineer. At 5:35 PM, Favier radioed to the tower that the incident was over; the incident unfolded in 54 hours.
All of the hijackers died. The 166Note a remaining passengers and crew survived the 20-minute gun battle. Of the 154Note a remaining passengers, 13 received minor injuries. Nine of the 30 GIGN operatives received injuries; of them, one received serious wounds. Three crew members received injuries. Dhellemme received bullets in his right elbow and thigh. Bossuat received minor injuries; the dead bodies of two hijackers had shielded Dhellemme and Bossuat from gunfire. Borderie, the most seriously injured, fractured his elbow and thigh from the 16-foot drop. Favier said that he determined that the operation was a success since none of the GIGN received fatal injuries. French Prime Minister
Prime Minister of France
The Prime Minister of France in the Fifth Republic is the head of government and of the Council of Ministers of France. The head of state is the President of the French Republic...
Édouard Balladur
Édouard Balladur
Édouard Balladur is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 29 March 1993 to 10 May 1995.-Biography:Balladur was born in İzmir, Turkey, to an Armenian Catholic family with five children and long-standing ties to France...
said that the events unfolded "exceptionally well."
Aftermath
As a result of the damage to the aircraft, the A300 was written off. Several hours after the incident ended, the Armed Islamic Group, which had claimed responsibility for the event, killed four Roman Catholic priests in retaliation in Tizi-Ouzou, AlgeriaAlgeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
. Three of the priests were French, while one was Belgian.
The crew of the A300 and the GIGN forces received high national honors. Charles Pasqua
Charles Pasqua
Charles Pasqua is a French businessman and Gaullist politician. He was Interior Minister from 1986 to 1988, under Jacques Chirac's cohabitation government, and also from 1993 to 1995, under the government of Edouard Balladur...
, then the Minister of the Interior, said that throughout the ordeal the crew "rose to the occasion." Bernard Dellemme returned to flying and worked for Air France for nine years before retiring. Flight attendant Claude Burgniard said that she "kept seeing the faces" of the three passengers who had been executed; when she received her medal she realized that she had helped save 173 people; this allowed her to mourn and get over the incident. Burgniard said that she does not wear the medal, but that she felt like she deserved it. Burgniard, who also received a message of thanks from the airline, never again worked for Air France. Flight attendant Christophe Morin stopped working for Air France and began to work for a charitable organization.
A former militant group leader admitted that the men had planned to detonate the aircraft over the Eiffel Tower
Eiffel Tower
The Eiffel Tower is a puddle iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris. Built in 1889, it has become both a global icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world...
. The militant groups never again attempted this plot. Pasqua said that if the militants crashed an aircraft on the Eiffel Tower or the Élysées Palace
Champs-Élysées
The Avenue des Champs-Élysées is a prestigious avenue in Paris, France. With its cinemas, cafés, luxury specialty shops and clipped horse-chestnut trees, the Avenue des Champs-Élysées is one of the most famous streets and one of the most expensive strip of real estate in the world. The name is...
they would have committed what they would believe to be "an extraordinary feat."
Morin and passenger Zahida Kakachi co-authored the book Le vol Alger-Marseille : Journal d'otages.
Air France discontinued the number "Flight 8969" after the hijacking. Flights between Algiers and Paris are now Flights 1555, 1855, 2155, and 2455 (operating to Charles de Gaulle instead of Orly). Flight 8969 is now used as a Air France codeshare route with the flight being operated by Delta Air Lines
Delta Air Lines
Delta Air Lines, Inc. is a major airline based in the United States and headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The airline operates an extensive domestic and international network serving all continents except Antarctica. Delta and its subsidiaries operate over 4,000 flights every day...
on its Green Bay, WI to Detroit, MI route.
Passengers and crew
Most of the passengers were Algerians; 138 of the passengers were Algerian citizens. A significant number of the passengers were French people leaving Algeria. Captain Bernard Dhellemme said that the hijackers, who had extensively planned the operation, did not anticipate that most of the passengers would be Algerians. The hijackers recited Qur'anQur'an
The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...
verses and tried to reassure the Algerian passengers. Witness accounts said that they "terrorized" non-Algerians.
| nationality | passengers | crew | in total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100 | 0 | 100 | |
| 75 | 12 | 87 | |
| 10 | 0 | 10 | |
| 5 | 0 | 5 | |
| 3 | 0 | 3 | |
| 5 | 0 | 5 | |
| 5 | 0 | 5 | |
| 5 | 0 | 5 | |
| 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| in total | 209 | 12 | 221 |
The hijackers
25-year-old Abdul Abdullah Yahia, also known as "The Emir," was a petty thief and greengrocer from the Bab El OuedBab El Oued
Bab el-Oued is a neighbourhood in Algiers, the capital of Algeria, along the coast north of the city centre.During the existence of French Algeria, Bab el-Oued became the main neighbourhood of poor pied-noirs, including many poor fishermen...
neighborhood of Algiers. The negotiators said that Yahia spoke "approximate" French language
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
and always ended his sentences in "Insha'Allah
Insha'Allah
Insha'Allah is an Arabic term to indicate hope for an aforementioned event to occur in the future. The phrase translates into English as "God willing" or "If it is God's will", sometimes spoken as DV; the Latin abbreviation for Deo volente or simply "God willing"...
" ("God willing"). Several passengers said all but one of the hijackers had no beards and closely cropped hair. A woman said that the men "were polite and, correct" and that they "had the determined air of cold-blooded killers." Another passenger said the hijackers "seemed excited, very euphoric" and that they told the occupants that they would teach the French and the world a lesson and show what they were capable of doing.
As the hijacking progressed, the passengers recognized the personalities of the hijackers. Claude Burgniard, a flight attendant, recalled that the crew and passengers gave nicknames to the hijackers "to make things simpler." Yahia, the leader, had given his name, so the passengers called him by that name. According to Burignard, Lotfi had a "peculiar" character, "was always on a knife edge," and "the most fanatic" and "the most fundamentalist" of the hijackers. Therefore he received the nickname "Madman" from the passengers. According to Burignard, Lotfi was the hijacker who insisted that the passengers follow Islamic law. Lotfi found women having their heads uncovered "intolerable," making him very angry. One hijacker did not give his name to the passengers, so they called him "Bill." Burignard stated that Bill was "a little bit simple" and "more of a goatherd than a terrorist." She said his role as a hijacker was "an error in casting." Burignard remembered that the occupants wondered why Bill was there and that they saw Bill appearing as if he wondered why he was there. The hijacker nicknamed "The Killer" shot the hostages who the hijackers had targeted.
Dramatization
The incident was featured in the episode Hijacked from the MaydayMayday (TV series)
Mayday, also known as Air Crash Investigation in the United Kingdom, Australia and Asia and Air Emergency and Air Disasters in the United States, is a Canadian documentary television programme produced by Cineflix investigating air crashes, near-crashes and other disasters...
television series (also known as Air Emergency or Air Crash Investigation) as well as in Zero Hour
Zero Hour (TV series)
Zero Hour is a Canadian/British documentary-style television program, which airs on The History Channel in the United States, History Television in Canada and on the BBC in the United Kingdom...
television series episode Shoot-Out in Marseille. Bernard Dhellemme, the captain of Flight 8969, agreed to make his first ever television interview for Mayday as long as he appeared under silhouette; he requested this as he felt the events were still threatening to him. Colonel Denis Favier, then a major who was the head of the GIGN counter-terrorist unit assigned to the flight, also requested to keep his face obscured as members of the public believed that the militants offered a reward for an assassination of Favier.
A one-hour documentary, episode 3 of the UK BBC2 television series "The Age of Terror" transmitted at 21:00 BST on 29 April 2008, covered this hijacking in depth, and included interviews with passenger, crew, GIGN commando, and government official eyewitnesses, including the co-pilot who jumped out of the cockpit window. It was stated explicitly that a mole
Mole (espionage)
A mole is a spy who works for an enemy nation, but whose loyalty ostensibly lies with his own nation's government. In some usage, a mole differs from a defector in that a mole is a spy before gaining access to classified information, while a defector becomes a spy only after gaining access...
with the GIA terrorists informed the French, but not Algerian, authorities that the intention was to use the aircraft as a missile to attack Paris.
A French film called L'Assaut has been made with the collaboration and the advices of the GIGN .
See also
- List of accidents and incidents on commercial airliners
- Singapore Airlines Flight 117Singapore Airlines Flight 117On March 26, 1991, Singapore Airlines Flight 117 was hijacked in flight by four male passengers who claimed to be Pakistanis. The aircraft landed at Singapore...
, similar hijacking which resulted in a storming of the aircraft.
Footnotes
- Note a:
Sources differ: TIME magazine states there were initially 227 passengers, while Peter Taylor said "Most of the 220 passengers and 12 crew were settling into their seats ... around 11 am four armed men appeared in the cabin". Both TIME and Taylor state 63 Algerians were freed. Of those freed at the end TIME claims 173 passengers and crew, while Taylor's figures indicate 166 (154 passengers and 12 crew); Aviation Safety Network indicates 163 remaining alive (170 occupants with 7 fatalities) at 17:00 26 December 1994.
External links
- Article on hijacking of Air France Flight 8969 by Giles MiltonGiles MiltonGiles Milton is a writer who specialises in the history of exploration. His books have been published in seventeen languages worldwide and are international best-sellers...
/ Blueprint for 9/11: The Hijacking of Air France Flight 8969 - Meeting Thierry P - Interview with a former GIGN member who was injured during the raid (in French)
- Video of the raid with commentary from National Geographic Channel