In December 1973, Fatah, a Palestinian military organization executed series of attacks originating at Rome-Fiumicino Airport in Italy which resulted in the deaths of 34 people. The attacks began with an airport-terminal invasion and hostage-taking, followed by the firebombing of a Pan Am aircraft and the hijacking of a

Lufthansa Deutsche Lufthansa AG (), trading as the Lufthansa Group, is a German aviation group. Its major and founding subsidiary airline Lufthansa German Airlines, branded as Lufthansa, is the flag carrier of Germany. It ranks List of largest airlin ...

flight. Pan Am Flight 110 was scheduled to depart from Rome, Italy and arrive in

Tehran Tehran (; , ''Tehrân'') is the capital and largest city of Iran. It is the capital of Tehran province, and the administrative center for Tehran County and its Central District (Tehran County), Central District. With a population of around 9. ...

, Iran, by way of

Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...

, Lebanon. On 17 December 1973, shortly before

takeoff Takeoff is the phase of flight in which an aerospace vehicle leaves the ground and becomes airborne. For aircraft traveling vertically, this is known as liftoff. For aircraft that take off horizontally, this usually involves starting with a tr ...

, the

airport terminal An airport terminal is a main building at an airport where passengers transfer between ground transportation and the facilities that allow them to board and disembark from an Fixed-wing aircraft, aircraft. The buildings that provide access t ...

and the flight aircraft were attacked and the aircraft was set on fire by armed Palestinian gunmen, resulting in the deaths of thirty persons on the plane and two in the terminal. Following the Flight 110 attack, the gunmen hijacked Lufthansa Flight 303 and killed two more people. They ended up in the custody of the

Kuwait Kuwait, officially the State of Kuwait, is a country in West Asia and the geopolitical region known as the Middle East. It is situated in the northern edge of the Arabian Peninsula at the head of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to Iraq–Kuwait ...

i authorities. Since the public has never been provided with unambiguous, official proof as to which power or organization commissioned the attack, the real motives remain unknown to this day. However, this terrorist operation on Italian soil can be related to another event: on the very same December 17 date as the Fiumicino massacre, a hearing had been scheduled for the criminal trial of the terrorists, already detained in Italy, of the earlier failed terrorist attack in Ostia (Rome).

Background

Since the ousting of the

Palestine Liberation Organization The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ) is a Palestinian nationalism, Palestinian nationalist coalition that is internationally recognized as the official representative of the Palestinians, Palestinian people in both the occupied Pale ...

(PLO) from Jordan, following the Jordanian-Palestinian civil war, Palestinian military organizations made South Lebanon their headquarters and base of operations, enlisting militants from Palestinian refugee camps. South Lebanon was referred to as ''Fatah-land'', due to the almost complete control of Fatah and other military Palestinian organizations over this -officially Lebanese- area, which they used to stage attacks against Israel, mainly targeting civilians, and to engage in armed operations abroad, termed "acts of terrorism."

Terminal invasion and firebombing of Pan Am Flight 110

On 17 December 1973, Pan Am Flight 110 was scheduled to fly from Leonardo da Vinci International Airport in Rome to Beirut International Airport in Lebanon and then on to

, Iran. At the controls of the Boeing 707-321B ( registration name ''Clipper Celestial'') were

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

Andrew Erbeck, First Officer Robert Davison, and Flight engineer Kenneth Pfrang. At approximately 12:51 local time in Rome, just as Flight 110 was preparing to

taxi A taxi, also known as a taxicab or simply a cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a Driving, driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of thei ...

, five suspects made their way through the terminal building, armed with

automatic firearm An automatic firearm or fully automatic firearm (to avoid confusion with semi-automatic firearms) is a self-loading firearm that continuously Chamber (firearms), chambers and fires Cartridge (firearms), rounds when the trigger (firearms), trigger ...

s and

grenade A grenade is a small explosive weapon typically thrown by hand (also called hand grenade), but can also refer to a Shell (projectile), shell (explosive projectile) shot from the muzzle of a rifle (as a rifle grenade) or a grenade launcher. A mod ...

s. The terrorists removed

submachine gun A submachine gun (SMG) is a magazine (firearms), magazine-fed automatic firearm, automatic carbine designed to fire handgun cartridges. The term "submachine gun" was coined by John T. Thompson, the inventor of the Thompson submachine gun, to descri ...

s from hand-luggage bags and began firing throughout the terminal, shattering windows and killing two people. Pilots and crew in the cockpit of the aircraft were able to observe travelers and airport employees in the building running for cover. Captain Erbeck announced over the plane's

public address A public address system (or PA system) is an electronic system comprising microphones, amplifiers, loudspeakers, and related equipment. It increases the apparent volume (loudness) of a human voice, musical instrument, or other acoustic sound sou ...

system that there was "some commotion" in the terminal and instructed all the people on board to get down on the floor. Several of the gunmen ran across the tarmac toward the Pan American jet, throwing one

phosphorus Phosphorus is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol P and atomic number 15. All elemental forms of phosphorus are highly Reactivity (chemistry), reactive and are therefore never found in nature. They can nevertheless be prepared ar ...

incendiary and other hand grenades through the open front and rear doors of the aircraft. The explosions knocked crew and passengers to the ground, and the cabin filled with thick, acrid smoke from the resulting fires. Stewardesses were able to open the emergency exit over the wing on one side of the plane; the other exit was obstructed by gunmen. The crew attempted to evacuate as many passengers as possible through the available exit, but twenty-nine passengers and

purser A purser is the person on a ship principally responsible for the handling of money on board. On modern merchant ships, the purser is the officer responsible for all administration (including the ship's cargo and passenger manifests) and supply. ...

Diana Perez died on the plane, including all eleven passengers in first class. Four Moroccan officials heading to Iran for a visit, and Bonnie Erbeck, wife of the plane's captain, were among the dead. Captain Erbeck survived the attack. Also killed were fourteen Aramco employees and employee family members. The aircraft itself was destroyed.

Hijacking of Lufthansa Flight 303

Having assaulted the Pan Am aircraft, the five gunmen took hostage several Italians and Lufthansa ground crew members into Lufthansa Flight 303, waiting to depart for

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

. An Italian border police officer, 20-year-old Antonio Zara, was shot and killed when he first arrived at the scene of the attack and tried to fight the terrorists, after the general alarm had been sounded by the airport's

control tower Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through a given section of controlled airspace, and can provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled a ...

. The hijackers then forced the crew already on board to move the plane towards the runway in order to take off. For the first part of the plane's taxiing, the aircraft was chased by several

Carabinieri The Carabinieri (, also , ; formally ''Arma dei Carabinieri'', "Arm of Carabineers"; previously ''Corpo dei Carabinieri Reali'', "Royal Carabineers Corps") are the national gendarmerie of Italy who primarily carry out domestic and foreign poli ...

and

Guardia di Finanza The Guardia di Finanza (; G. di F. or GdF; or ) is an Italian militarised law enforcement agency under the Ministry of Economy and Finance (Italy), Ministry of Economy and Finance, instead of the Ministry of Defence (Italy), Ministry of Defence ...

vehicles, who abandoned the chase after the hijackers threatened to kill all the hostages on board. At 13:32 hours, just over half an hour from the start of the action, the plane took off for

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

, where it arrived at 16:50 hours, local Athens time. The attack was too fast to allow an adequate response from the airport's police forces. At the time, 117 officers were on duty at the airport: 9

carabinieri The Carabinieri (, also , ; formally ''Arma dei Carabinieri'', "Arm of Carabineers"; previously ''Corpo dei Carabinieri Reali'', "Royal Carabineers Corps") are the national gendarmerie of Italy who primarily carry out domestic and foreign poli ...

, 46 customs officers and 62 State Police officers, of which 8 were employed in the anti-sabotage service, a negligible number for an intercontinental airport like Fiumicino. The airport structure was unsuitable for the prevention of terrorist attacks, as it was designed at a time when such events were rare.

Athens stopover

Upon landing in Athens, the terrorists demanded by radio the release of two Palestinian gunmen responsible for an attack on Hellinikon International Airport. They claimed to have killed five hostages, including the plane's first officer. The terrorists then threatened to crash the jet in the middle of Athens if their demands were not met. In reality, only one Italian hostage, Domenico Ippoliti, had been killed and one other hostage wounded. After the refusal of the two detainees to join the commando, they limited their demands to just refuel and leave. The plane took off again from Athens after sixteen hours on the ground and after the gunmen had released the wounded hostage and dumped the body of the dead hostage onto the tarmac.

Damascus stopover

The plane next headed for

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

, where Lebanese authorities refused to allow its landing, and blocked the runway with vehicles.

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

also refused to allow landing. The terrorists on board ordered the plane to head for

Damascus Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

, allegedly because the plane was running low on fuel. After they landed in the Syrian capital's airport,

Air Force An air force in the broadest sense is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an army aviati ...

Commander Major General Naji Jamil attempted to persuade the Palestinians to release the hostages, but they refused. The Syrians provided food to everyone on board and refueled the plane. They also treated one of the hijackers for a head injury. The plane took off again two to three hours after landing.

Landing in Kuwait

The commandeered jet headed for

, where Kuwaiti authorities refused to allow it to land. Captain Kroese was ordered by the terrorists to land anyway on a secondary runway. An hour of negotiations between the terrorists and the Kuwaiti authorities ended with the release of all twelve remaining hostages in exchange for "free passage" to an unknown destination for the hijackers. The terrorists were permitted to retain their weapons and, upon leaving the plane, raised their hands to the cameras in a V-for-victory sign.

Aftermath

The terrorists negotiated their escape, but they were still captured shortly thereafter. The Kuwaiti authorities, after questioning the terrorists, decided not to put them on

trial In law, a trial is a coming together of parties to a dispute, to present information (in the form of evidence) in a tribunal, a formal setting with the authority to adjudicate claims or disputes. One form of tribunal is a court. The tribunal, w ...

and considered the possibility of handing them over. The factors that came into play at this point were complex, and sparked a diplomatic case that saw the US and many Arab and European countries clashing over the fate of the terrorists and which nation had jurisdiction to prosecute them.

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, despite having made a formal request for

extradition In an extradition, one Jurisdiction (area), jurisdiction delivers a person Suspect, accused or Conviction, convicted of committing a crime in another jurisdiction, into the custody of the other's law enforcement. It is a cooperative law enforc ...

to the Arab emirate, appeared to have no real intention of detaining and trying the terrorists on its own territory, since the request was bound to failure (Italy had no extradition treaty with Kuwait). What probably encouraged Italy to relent in its efforts to take the matter under its command was the danger that detaining the suspects in Italian prisons could have exposed Italy to retaliation by other Palestinian terrorists in a bid for their release. Subsequently, in fact, the last terrorist who was held in Italy (responsible for the failed attack in Ostia in 1972) was also actually released, probably for the same reason. Other European countries such as the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

also followed this line of thinking. Italy's actions lend credence to the notion that the Italian government had decided to consider the tragic events at Fiumicino in terms of its "

national interest The national interest is a sovereign state's goals and ambitions – be they economic, military, cultural, or otherwise – taken to be the aim of its government. Etymology The Italian phrase ''ragione degli stati'' was first used by Giovanni de ...

", whereby it engaged in compromise that tended towards humiliation. After gruelling international wrangling, in 1974, Egyptian president

Anwar Sadat Muhammad Anwar es-Sadat (25 December 1918 – 6 October 1981) was an Egyptian politician and military officer who served as the third president of Egypt, from 15 October 1970 until Assassination of Anwar Sadat, his assassination by fundame ...

agreed to the suspects being taken to

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

under the responsibility of their group, who would process them for conducting an "unauthorized operation". They remained in prison until 24 November 1974, when, following negotiations further to the hijack of a British aircraft in

Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...

(carried out with the precise aim of forcing their release), the five men in the commando were released in Tunisia with the complicity of a good number of Arab and European governments and the US. Thereafter, all news of the men ceased and they were spirited away, perhaps hosted in an Arab country where they went unpunished.

Gallery

File:Strage di Fiumicino 1973 (2 of 11).jpg File:Strage di Fiumicino 1973 (10 of 11).jpg File:Strage di Fiumicino 1973 (9 of 11).jpg File:Strage di Fiumicino 1973 (5 of 11).jpg File:Strage di Fiumicino 1973 (8 of 11).jpg

References

Sources

Death in Rome Aboard Flight 110
''

TIME Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'', 31 December 1973. Retrieved on 10 April 2007.
"Arab Hijackers Land in Kuwait; Hostages Freed"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', 19 December 1973. Page 1.
"Arab Guerrillas Kill 31 in Rome During Attack on U.S. Airliner, Take Hostages and Go to Athens"
''The New York Times'', 18 December 1973. Page 1.
Athens attack leaves 3 dead
''

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

'', 5 August 1973. Retrieved on 10 April 2007. *Gabriele Paradisi, Rosario Priore: La strage dimenticata Fiumicino 17 December 1973, Reggio Emilia 2015. {{DEFAULTSORT:Rome airport attacks and hijacking December 1973 in the United States 1970s in Lazio Accidents and incidents involving the Boeing 707 Accidents and incidents involving the Boeing 737 Original Aircraft hijackings in Europe Arson attacks on vehicles in Europe Arson in Italy Aviation accidents and incidents in 1973 Aviation accidents and incidents in Italy Aviation accidents and incidents in Greece Aviation accidents and incidents in Kuwait Aviation accidents and incidents in Syria Arson in 1973 Grenade attacks in Italy December 1973 in Europe Explosions in 1973 Fiumicino

1973 Events January * January 1 – The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark 1973 enlargement of the European Communities, enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 14 - The 16-0 19 ...