LOT Polish Airlines Flight 165 was a

LOT Polish Airlines LOT Polish Airlines, legally Polskie Linie Lotnicze LOT S.A. (, ''flight''), is the flag carrier of Poland. A founding member of IATA, it is one of the world's oldest airlines. With a fleet of 87 aircraft as of June 2025, LOT is Europe's 16th ...

flight that was hijacked on 30 August 1978. – The hijackers from

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

(GDR) were seeking

political asylum The right of asylum, sometimes called right of political asylum (''asylum'' ), is a juridical concept, under which people persecuted by their own rulers might be protected by another sovereignty, sovereign authority, such as a second country or ...

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

(FRG). The plane landed safely, and the primary hijacker was tried and convicted by a West German jury in the United States Court for Berlin and sentenced to time served, the nine months he had already served during pretrial detention. This was the only case heard before the United States Court for Berlin.

Background

The GDR citizens Hans Detlef Alexander Tiede (aka Detlev Tiede) and his friend Ingrid Ruske and her 12-year-old daughter had travelled to Poland to meet with Ruske's West German boyfriend Horst Fischer, who had planned to bring forged West German papers to enable their escape by ferry to West German

Travemünde Travemünde () is a borough of Lübeck, Germany, located at the mouth of the river Trave in Bay of Lübeck, Lübeck Bay. It began life as a fortress built by Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony, in the 12th century to guard the mouth of the Trave, an ...

. – However, Fischer did not turn up, and after four days of waiting for him Ruske and Tiede – not having any information as to his whereabouts – concluded that Fischer must have been arrested when travelling through East Germany. Their conclusion was right, as Fischer had indeed been arrested and would later be sentenced to eight years of jail in East Germany for preparing their ''Republikflucht'' ("desertion from the Republic"), a crime under GDR law. Ruske and Tiede then concluded that they were trapped and that prison awaited them if they returned to East Germany. So they developed a plan to hijack a plane headed for

East Berlin East Berlin (; ) was the partially recognised capital city, capital of East Germany (GDR) from 1949 to 1990. From 1945, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet occupation sector of Berlin. The American, British, and French se ...

's Schönefeld Airport and force a landing at the

U.S. Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its origins to 1 ...

base at

Tempelhof Airport Berlin Tempelhof Airport () was one of the first airports in Berlin, Germany. Situated in the south-central Berlin borough of Tempelhof-Schöneberg, the airport ceased operating in 2008 amid controversy, leaving Tegel and Schönefeld as the ...

in West Berlin. They bought a toy

starting pistol A starting pistol or starter pistol is a blank handgun or, more recently, an electronic toy gun or device with a button connected to a sound system that is fired to start track and field races as well as some competitive swimming races. Tradit ...

at a Polish flea market, and then booked three tickets on

Flight 165 from

Gdańsk Gdańsk is a city on the Baltic Sea, Baltic coast of northern Poland, and the capital of the Pomeranian Voivodeship. With a population of 486,492, Data for territorial unit 2261000. it is Poland's sixth-largest city and principal seaport. Gdań ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

, to East Berlin.

Hijacking

On 30 August 1978, Tiede and Ruske hijacked a Polish LOT

Tupolev Tu-134 The Tupolev Tu-134 (NATO reporting name: Crusty) is a twin-engined, narrow-body jet airliner built in the Soviet Union for short and medium-haul routes from 1966 to 1989. The original version featured a glazed-nose design and, like certain oth ...

airliner with 62 passengers operating Flight 165 from Gdańsk to East Berlin. Tiede, armed with the toy starting pistol, took a

flight attendant A flight attendant is a member of the aircrew whose primary responsibility is ensure the safety of passengers in the cabin of an aircraft across all stages of flight. Their secondary duty is to see to the comfort of passengers. Flight attenda ...

hostage and succeeded in forcing the aircraft to land at Tempelhof Airport in West Berlin. Of the 62 passengers, there were 50 GDR citizens, 10 Polish citizens, a man from

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 ...

and a woman from West Berlin. The passengers were given the opportunity to remain in West Berlin or to return to East Berlin. Not only did Tiede, Ruske and her daughter claim sanctuary in West Berlin, but so did another seven East Germans: a radiology assistant from

Erfurt Erfurt () is the capital (political), capital and largest city of the Central Germany (cultural area), Central German state of Thuringia, with a population of around 216,000. It lies in the wide valley of the Gera (river), River Gera, in the so ...

, a couple with two children and a couple from

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

, although the radiology assistant returned to East Germany the next day. The remaining passengers were interviewed and taken to East Berlin on a bus.

Trial

The West German

Federal Government A federation (also called a federal state) is an entity characterized by a political union, union of partially federated state, self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a #Federal governments, federal government (federalism) ...

was unwilling to prosecute Tiede and Ruske because of the West German policy of supporting the right of East Germans to flee oppression in the GDR. The

United States government The Federal Government of the United States of America (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the Federation#Federal governments, national government of the United States. The U.S. federal government is composed of three distinct ...

had successfully persuaded the East German government to sign a hijacking treaty. Consequently, the case was prosecuted in the United States Court for Berlin, with charges bought under the terms of The Hague Convention as incorporated into the laws of the United States, as the plane landed at a US Air Force base. US federal judge Herbert Jay Stern ruled that the defendants were entitled to be tried by a jury, as guaranteed by the

Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution The Sixth Amendment (Amendment VI) to the United States Constitution sets forth rights related to criminal prosecutions. It was ratified in 1791 as part of the United States Bill of Rights. The Supreme Court has applied all but one of this amen ...

, a procedure abolished in Germany by the

Emminger Reform The Emminger Decree or Emminger Reform (, ''Lex Emminger'', or '; formally the ' (''Court Organisation and Criminal Justice Regulations'')) was an emergency decree in the democratic Weimar Republic by Justice Minister Erich Emminger ( BVP) on 4 ...

of 1924. The case against Tiede's co-defendant Ingrid Ruske was dismissed because she had not been notified of her legal rights before signing a confession. Tiede was acquitted on three charges, including hijacking and possession of a firearm, but convicted of taking a hostage. The jury found Tiede guilty of hostage-taking, but not guilty of acts against the safety of civil aviation,

deprivation of liberty Imprisonment or incarceration is the restraint of a person's liberty for any cause whatsoever, whether by authority of the government, or by a person acting without such authority. In the latter case it is considered "false imprisonment". Impris ...

and battery. The minimum sentence for hostage-taking was three years. However, Stern sentenced Tiede to time served during pretrial detention, about nine months. Stern accounted for Tiede's emergency situation and plight to face imprisonment in East Germany for attempted ''Republikflucht''.

In popular culture

The 1984 book which Judge Stern wrote about the event, '' Judgment in Berlin'', was made into a movie of the same name in 1988.

Martin Sheen Ramón Gerard Antonio Estévez (born August 3, 1940), known professionally as Martin Sheen, is an American actor. His work spans over six decades of television and film, and his accolades include three Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and ...

depicted him.

Notes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lot Polish Airlines Flight 165 Hijacking Aviation accidents and incidents in 1978 Aviation history of Berlin Accidents and incidents involving the Tupolev Tu-134 1978 in Poland Aircraft hijackings in Europe Eastern Bloc defectors Legal history of Germany 165 1978 in East Germany East Germany–West Germany relations August 1978 in Europe 1978 crimes in Poland Hijackings in the 1970s