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June 15 - Amal guerrilla gunmen hijack TWA Flight 847 en
route from Rome to Athens. The plane, which includes
some Jewish passengers, is then
re-routed and taken to Algiers, Beirut, and Algiers
again before setting in Beirut. The 39 passengers and crew are
freed on July 1 after Israel
agrees to free 700 Shiite prisoners. This event was the
inspiration for The Delta Force.
June 23 - Air India Flight 182, a Boeing 747, explodes off
the Irish coast, killing all
passengers. A terrorist bomb is suspected, but never
confirmed.
August 12 - Japan Airlines Flight 123,
from Tokyo to Osaka, crashes. The Boeing 747 had an explosion, then hit Mount
Otsuka, killing 520 of 524 people on board. Rescuers are later
shocked and saddened to find farewell notes that the passengers had
written for their family and friends, next to the bodies. As of
2004 this is still the worst single-aircraft air disaster
August 21 - Sir Freddie Laker accepts a £UK 8 million in
a settlement with British Airways. Laker had sued twelve
airlines for conspiring to drive Laker Airways out of business
August 22 - a Boeing
737 of British Airtours explodes in Manchester before taking
off, killing 54 of the 134 people on board and punctuating
commercial aviation's worst month in history.
November 23 - EgyptAir Flight 648 is hijacked
after take-off from Athens, and
commandeered to Cairo. The next
day, Egyptian forces storm the
plane that was hijacked, starting a gun battle with the hijackers.
60 people die in the cross-fire