Most Travelers Resume Trip on Hijacked Liner

Most of the 606 passengers stranded by the hijacking of the Italian luxury liner Achille Lauro flew to Israel today to meet the ship and resume a Mediterranean cruise shattered by the two-day piracy and the murder of one American.

All the passengers in the group escaped the hijacking because they were on a day-trip to Cairo when four Palestinian terrorists seized the ship at gunpoint Monday. The hijackers surrendered Wednesday, releasing more than 500 other passengers and crew who had stayed aboard ship.

The stranded passengers flew to Tel Aviv on two chartered Alitalia jets, a Boeing 747 and a DC-9. From Tel Aviv they were to travel overland to the port of Ashdod to meet the ship.

An Alitalia spokesman said 548 of the passengers decided to resume the cruise while the other 58 were returning to their homes in various countries. About nine of the passengers took a flight bound for New York.

Many Disgruntled

In contrast to their euphoric mood Wednesday when they learned that the hijackers had given up and released their hostages, many of the passengers were disgruntled.

Some complained that neither the ship’s owners nor the U.S. Embassy had given them a report on the murder of Leon Klinghoffer, 69, a wheelchair-bound passenger from New York.

Among those returning to the cruise ship was Pearl Rosenthal of Mount Vernon, N.Y., who was in the tour party of 11 Americans that included Klinghoffer and his wife. Her eyes filled with tears when she was told that Klinghoffer’s death had been confirmed.

“Oh, his poor wife,” she said. “It was her decision that we all went on this trip. She thought it would be a wonderful trip. The night before the hijacking we were celebrating her birthday. It was such a pleasant night.”

“We are going on but if we could get a refund I’d go home,” said Thomas Smith of Fredonia, N.Y. “We’ll think hard and long before leaving the U.S. again.”