John Testrake; Pilot in 1985 Hijacking Ordeal

John Testrake, the unflappable TWA pilot who emerged as the hero of a 1985 Middle East hijacking, has died of cancer. He was 68.

Testrake, who died Tuesday, agreed with doctors’ recommendation to forgo chemotherapy, finding strength in the religious faith that sustained him through the 17-day ordeal on a Beirut airport tarmac.

The Trans World Airlines jet, with 145 passengers and nine crew members, was flying from Athens to Rome on June 14, 1985, when it was hijacked by Shiite militiamen demanding the release of hundreds of Lebanese from Israeli jails.

The plane was forced to crisscross the Mediterranean between Beirut and Algiers, landing in Beirut three times before it was finally allowed to remain.

Testrake’s urgent message to the Beirut control tower was broadcast around the world: “We must, I repeat, we must land, repeat, at Beirut. . . . Ground, TWA 847, they are threatening to kill the passengers, they are threatening to kill the passengers. We must have fuel, we must get fuel. . . . They are beating the passengers, they are beating the passengers.”

One passenger, U.S. Navy diver Robert Stethem, was shot to death and his body was dumped on the tarmac.

Dozens of passengers were released. But 39 American men remained in captivity for two weeks, most scattered around Beirut while Testrake and two other crewmen remained on board.

At one point during the hijacking, TV viewers saw an unshaven Testrake calmly leaning out of the cockpit, being interviewed by someone on the ground, while a man beside him held a cocked pistol to his head.

He retired from TWA because of age restrictions in 1987, then flew relief missions for several years for the Mission Aviation Fellowship, delivering goods to airstrips in such places as Haiti, Zaire, Indonesia and New Guinea, and once flew directly into the civil war in Angola.