Agence France-Presse
19 June, 1985
Guarded by an armed Palestinian hijacker, John Testrake, pilot of a TWA Boeing 727 answers questions from the press at the Beirut International Airport. The flight (847) from Athens to Rome was hijacked on 14 June and forced to land in Beirut. The plane's 145 passengers were kept as hostages for 17 days as the aircraft flew between Beirut and Algeria twice. The hijackers demanded the release of 17 members of Hezbollah and the Iraqi Islamic Daawa Party detained in Kuwait for attacks that killed six people in 1983. During the incident, the hijackers killed a US Navy diver and dumped his body on to the runway apron at Beirut Airport.
