FX.co ★ Most Terrifying Aviation Hijackings in the World

El Al Flight 426, a passenger plane was hijacked on 23rd July 1968 by three members of the popular front for the liberation of Palestine group (PFLP). The plane was on its regular route from Heathrow airport to Leonardo da vinci airport. Hijackers forced the pilot with a pistol to divert the plane to Algiers. Five weeks later, all passengers were released in exchange for 16 Arab terrorists.

In September 1970, with “attracting attention to the Palestine problem” as their stated goal, fighters hijacked four American and European planes and landed them on an abandoned airstrip in the Jordanian desert. After a while, the UK satisfied the demands of the militants and released the member of its organization Laila Khaled in exchange for hostages.

Malaysia Airlines Flight 737 was hijacked on 4th December 1977 when the plane flown from Penang to Kuala Lumpur. After the aircraft diverted to Singapore by hijacker, it was accidentally crashed at Tanjung Kupang. All 93 passengers and 7 crew members were killed in the crash. Some source's stats that the Red Army was responsible for the hijacking and the circumstances in which the crash occurred remain unsolved.

Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961, a Boeing 767 was hijacked on 23rd November 1996 by three Ethiopian men. The aircraft was on its regular route from Sahar international airport to Port Bouet airport. Hijacker takes an axe and a fire extinguisher and hijacked the plane and demanded the plane to be flown to Australia. When the plane was out of fuel, pilot crash landed the plane on shallow water near Mitsamiouli in the Indian Ocean over 200 mph.Total 125 people died of the 175 passengers, including three hijackers.

In April 1999 the Fokker-50 aircraft was hijacked by soldiers of the National Liberation Army of Colombia. The rebels left it in the northern part of the country, and all the passengers were taken to the jungle. Later they were released.

Indian Airlines Flight 814 was an Indian Airbus A300, hijacked on 24th December 1999 by a terrorist group, Harkat ul Mujahideen. Hijackers ordered the aircraft to fly to Amritsar, Lahore, Dubai and finally landed in Kandahar. Their motive is to release three militants which later involved in 9/11 attacks. One passenger died and other hostages were freed after the three hijackers landed in Kandahar.

The most notorious and the most recent hijacking is of course the hijacking of four US planes on September 11, 2001 by Islamist terrorists. Four passenger airliners, United Airline Flight 175 & 93, American Airline Flight 11 & 77 were hijacked by 19 al-Qaeda terrorist group. Two of those planes, American flight 11 and United flight 175 were crashed into both north and south WTC. Third plane, American flight 77 was crashed into the Pentagon (headquarter of Department of Defense). Fourth aircraft, United airline flight 93 was planned at Washington DC but crashed into a field. The attack killed 2996 people including 19 hijackers and injured more than 6000 people. The attack also damages $10 billion of property and infrastructure.