Slain Navy Man Bravely Endured Beatings, TWA Attendant Says

Flight attendant Uli Derickson testified today that a U.S. Navy diver bravely endured savage beatings at the hands of the hijackers of a TWA jetliner before he was murdered.

Her statements came as the murder and piracy trial of Mohammed Ali Hamadi continued in a heavily guarded courtroom in Frankfurt.

The hijackers “took him up to the cockpit and started to brutally beat him. They beat on him as long as he stood,” Derickson told the court of Navy diver Robert Stethem’s ordeal.

“When Mr. Stethem collapsed, one of the hijackers took the armrest of a seat--it still had the screws sticking out of it--and beat on him.”

She said that when Stethem collapsed, one hijacker “jumped on his ribs with his full weight.”

Fighting back sobs, Derickson added: “Mr. Stethem was a very courageous man. He never made a sound.”

The German-born flight attendant said that after the beating, Hamadi turned to her and said: “Look at him now, he thinks he’s so strong.”

Hamadi has admitted taking part in the hijacking but has denied killing Stethem.

Thirty-nine Americans were held hostage for 17 days in the 1985 ordeal.

In earlier testimony today, Derickson recalled the harrowing moments just after the airliner was seized after takeoff from Athens airport. She said the hijackers threatened to blow up the airplane if they were not allowed into the cockpit.

“They said they had come to die. They said it didn’t make any difference to them,” she testified.

Derickson, a 44-year-old U.S. citizen, said Hamadi held a gun to her head shortly after the flight to Rome took off June 14, 1985.

She said another hijacker kicked her and swore at her.

Derickson, the purser aboard TWA Flight 847, is credited with shielding passengers whose names sounded Jewish by hiding their passports, court records indicate.

Former hostages said Derickson also helped calm the tense situation by acting as a translator for Hamadi during the hostage ordeal.

The Lebanese Shia Muslim lived in West Germany from 1982 to 1984 and speaks German but very little English.

Derickson described the moments when Stethem was killed after the plane landed for the second time in Beirut.

“I saw the curtain pulled shut on first class. There was a loud confusion behind the curtain. I believe I can remember several shots being fired.

“I remember thinking, ‘My God, they have shot someone.’ ”

Derickson testified that she does not know whether Hamadi or his accomplice fired the shots that killed Stethem.

In testimony before the court recessed last week, the captain of the flight, John Testrake of Richmond, Mo., said he believes that Hamadi is the hijacker who killed Stethem.

During the hijacking, the plane was forced to land at Beirut three times, and twice in Algiers. Stethem was slain when the plane landed in Beirut the second time.

Hamadi was arrested at Frankfurt airport Jan. 13, 1987, after customs officials found liquid explosives in his luggage.