Dieter Uchtdorf & the 1973 Pan Am Hijacking in Rome by PLO Guerillas

[Katy Lied]

Is it common knowledge that D. Uchtdorf was indirectly involved with rescue attempts arising from the hijack of Pan Am Flight 110 which was blown up on the runway of Da Vinci Airport in Rome?

I'd like to refer to this story in a talk in Church, but I really dislike it when people retell the same old story over and over. I figure if you folks have not heard it (much) then I might be safe.

I hate being a forgone conclusion.

TIA.

[Surfah]

Is it common knowledge that D. Uchtdorf was indirectly involved with rescue attempts arising from the hijack of Pan Am Flight 110 which was blown up on the runway of Da Vinci Airport in Rome?

I'd like to refer to this story in a talk in Church, but I really dislike it when people retell the same old story over and over. I figure if you folks have not heard it (much) then I might be safe.

I hate being a forgone conclusion.

TIA.

I never knew until now.

[Clark Addison]

I have never heard of this, and a quick googling led me to nothing. Do you mind sharing the story?

[creekster]

You're teasing us. What are the details?

[Coach McGuirk]

I did not know this and could not find a connection. I did howerver find this tidbit about pan am flight 73 in 1988 when google misinterpreted my searching,

On January 4, 2008 the Associated Press reported that the four hijackers in Adiala Jail - Mohammed Abdul Khalil Hussain, Daud Mohammed Hafiz, Mohammed Ahmed al-Munawar and Jamal Saeed, were set free by the Pakistani Authorities and deported to the Palestinian territories. [4]

Great idea Pakistan. Especially for a bunch of guys who's main goal was to do this,

The hijackers revealed the true motive behind hijacking was: "to fill up the aircraft with explosives and hit the Israeli defense ministry, using the aircraft as a missile

Doing wonders for the peace negotiations I'm sure.

[OrangeUte]

I think katy lies.

[Hallelujah]

Is it common knowledge that D. Uchtdorf was indirectly involved with rescue attempts arising from the hijack of Pan Am Flight 110 which was blown up on the runway of Da Vinci Airport in Rome?

I'd like to refer to this story in a talk in Church, but I really dislike it when people retell the same old story over and over. I figure if you folks have not heard it (much) then I might be safe.

I hate being a forgone conclusion.

TIA.

He was a Pan Am negotiator.

[Katy Lied]

From LDS.org:

(The original Pan Am 707 was blown up on the runway, so the Hijackers took the next available plane, a Lufthansa 737 getting ready to taxi. Some of the Lufthansa hijackers were on the original Pan Am 737 and others joined in later.)

"On December 17, 1973, the president of Lufthansa German Airlines in Frankfurt, Germany, received alarming news. Five terrorists had hijacked a Lufthansa 737 jet in Rome, Italy, and were making their way to Athens, Greece, with hostages on board. As they did so, 32 people lay dead in Rome, and one of the hostages now in flight was soon to be mortally shot and summarily dumped onto the airport runway in Athens. With guns to the heads of the pilot and copilot and with hostages trembling in terror, the unstable hijackers directed a bizarre path from Rome to Beirut to Athens to Damascus to Kuwait.

In an instant, the president of Lufthansa ordered into the air his chief pilot for the 737 fleet. Thirty-three-year-old Dieter F. Uchtdorf was to take a small group of emergency personnel and follow the hijacked plane wherever the guerrillas took it. In every setting possible he was to negotiate for the release of the plane, the pilots, and the hostages. Then, when all of this had been accomplished, he was to fly the hijacked 737 back to headquarters in Frankfurt.

With fortunately no more bloodshed, this mission, like so many others he had been on personally and professionally, was successfully accomplished..."

(I've read in other reports that the group that Uchtdorf was involved with was not exactly a Lufthansa company group, but rather a West German government group formed by Helmut Schmidt called Grenzshustzgruppe 9, or GSG-9, translated as Border Security Group 9. It was an elite counterterrorism unit specializing in hijacking. There is no direct source linking GSG-9 with Uchtdorf, but other reports on the GSG-9's activities during this hijack crisis follow Uchtdorf's reminiscing very closely. Not a lot of detail available on this.)