Palestinian Convicted of Hijacking Airliner in ’85

A Palestinian man who admitted killing two passengers, one of them an American woman, and wounding three others during a 24-hour hijacking was convicted of air piracy Friday.

Omar Mohammed Ali Rezaq faces life in prison when he is sentenced in U.S. District Court on Oct. 7 by Judge Royce Lamberth.

Rezaq, who commandeered Egypt Air Flight 648 shortly after takeoff from Athens, Greece, in November 1985, argued that he had been driven insane by the Middle East conflict. Sixty people died during the hijacking, including two of the three hijackers.