Hijacked Jet Flies to Cyprus After Terror-Filled Odyssey

With almost no fuel left and the passengers said to be in such panic that many were vomiting, a hijacked Kuwaiti jumbo jet landed in Cyprus on Friday after the pilot, pleading for mercy at gunpoint, radioed that he was going to be forced to crash into the sea.

The airliner, hijacked Tuesday by terrorists seeking the release of Shia Muslim militants imprisoned in Kuwait, had taken off more than seven hours earlier from Mashhad airport in northeastern Iran on what, for the estimated 50 hostages still on board, was to be a terror-filled odyssey across the Middle East in search of an airport willing to let them land.

“Thank you, thank you! I’ll never forget this,” the pilot said in a voice choked with emotion as Cypriot officials finally relented and cleared the Kuwait Airways Boeing 747 for landing at Larnaca Airport, where it touched down Friday evening, reportedly with only a few minutes of fuel left.

But this morning, as the drama entered its fifth day, the hijackers threatened to kill passengers unless their demands for fuel were met.

A spokesman for the terrorists, in a message to the control tower, said: “If our tanks are not filled one hundred percent . . . we shall execute the first passenger.”

Shortly before that demand, the pilot told the tower that the hijackers had begun beating passengers when airport authorities failed to meet their deadline on refueling. There was no way to confirm the pilot’s report.

At 7:15, one minute after the deadline announced an hour earlier, the pilot radioed the tower: “The warning has expired and they’ve started beating the passengers.”

He was asked if he could see the beatings.

“Affirmative,” he replied.

When the jet landed Friday evening, Cypriot authorities immediately cordoned off the airport, declared a state of emergency and suspended all other air traffic. Foreign Minister George Iacovou went to Larnaca to establish contact with the hijackers, who have not identified themselves but who are believed to be Lebanese Shia Muslims. Passengers freed earlier in Iran have given different estimates for the number of hijackers, but there are said to be at least five and perhaps as many as seven on board the plane.

The gunmen commandeered the Kuwait-bound aircraft several hours after it took off Tuesday from Bangkok and diverted it to Mashhad, where over the next three days they released 57 of the 112 people on board. The remaining hostages are said to include 30 Kuwaitis and a number of other Arabs, including an Egyptian who holds dual U.S. citizenship. Among the Kuwaiti hostages are three members of Kuwait’s ruling family.

Iranian authorities, who at Kuwait’s request had refused to allow the plane to leave Mashhad, relented Friday morning and gave the pilot clearance to take off after the hijackers threw a hand grenade onto the tarmac and beat one of the passengers in front of the cockpit radio so that his screams could be heard by officials in the control tower. The hijackers also fired several warning shots and repeated their threats to blow up the plane unless they were allowed to leave.

Iranians Clear Runway

At that point the runway, which had been blocked by Iranian security forces, was opened and permission was given for the plane to take off, the official Iranian news agency IRNA said.

For the weary Iraqi pilot and his remaining passengers, the hours that followed turned into a daylong nightmare in which the terror of one moment was quickly eclipsed by the horror of the next.

As one airport after another denied it permission to land, the plane flew west across Iran and Turkey to Cyprus, where it was initially turned away. Circling, it then sought permission to land in Beirut or Damascus, Syria, but was again denied permission to land.

After stalling the hijackers for two days, Iranian authorities at Mashhad, 470 miles northeast of Tehran, finally agreed to refuel the plane on Thursday. But they apparently did not give the jumbo jet enough fuel to fill its tanks. By the time it landed at Larnaca, a little more than seven hours later, the pilot reported that his fuel gauges showed “zero, repeat zero, readings on all tanks.”

Airliner Circles Airport

The most dramatic stage of the flight came as the blue-and-white jumbo jet, by this time dangerously low on fuel, circled Beirut International Airport with the hijackers demanding to land and control tower authorities warning it to go away or risk being shot down.

During the nearly three hours that the plane circled Beirut, the pilot repeatedly pleaded for permission to land. But the monitored radio conversations between the plane and the control tower indicated that Lebanese officials and Syrian military authorities, whose troops control the airport, were adamant in their refusal.

“If you try to land by force, you will be fired upon,” the control tower warned.

“A gun is pointed at my head. I request landing permission to refuel,” the pilot said.

“We (Lebanese) have been for 14 years under gunfire,” the traffic controller answered coldly, still refusing to let the plane land.

‘Please, I Beg You’

“Please, please . . . I beg you, I kiss your hand,” the pilot said. “I have human lives at stake here. . . . If you don’t let me land, I will have to crash into the sea.”

“Do whatever you want,” the voice from the control tower replied. “Crash on the tarmac or in the sea. . . . We will not let you land here.”

At one point, the hijackers, threatening to crash the plane into the control tower, brought several of the hostages to the cockpit to add their own pleas to that of the pilot. Their crying could be heard over the radio and several were said to be vomiting in terror.

“I shall punish (you),” one of the hijackers warned, in what was said to be Lebanese-accented Arabic. “Among the passengers is a member of the Kuwaiti royal family with a heart condition.”

“With all due respect,” the control tower replied, “we Lebanese all suffer heart ailments. So do not talk to me sentimentally.”

‘God Help Us’

A few minutes after this exchange, the pilot’s voice came over the radio again. “God help us,” he said, “we’re going to land.”

Suddenly the plane, which had been circling the airport at an altitude of about 3,500 feet, began to dive toward the control tower, sending people on the ground running in panic. But it pulled up at the last minute, climbing steeply and disappearing into the clouds.

It was at that point, apparently, that officials in Larnaca, 25 minutes’ flying time away, relented and radioed their approval for the jumbo jet to land.

When the plane arrived in Cyprus, the pilot immediately requested more fuel.

ROUTE OF HIJACKING 1. Iran allows hijacked Kuwaiti airliner to take off after more than 3 days on the ground.

2. Plane circles Beirut for 3 hours, repeatedly being denied permission to land. After 7 hours aloft, Cypriot authorities allow landing.