Achille Lauro Hijacking

October 7, 1985

The Italian cruise ship MS Achille Lauro is hijacked off the coast of Egypt on her way to Israel by four members of the Palestine Liberation Front. They killed sixty-nine-year-old wheelchair-bound Jewish American Leon Klinghoffer and threw his body overboard. The hijackers’ original plan was to open fire on Israeli soldiers in a suicide mission when they reached Ashdod, Israel, the ship’s destination. However, a cabin steward delivering complimentary fruit walked in on them as they were cleaning their weapons. With their plans interrupted, they decided to hijack the ship instead. They demanded that the Israeli government release 50 Palestinians held in its jails, or they would begin killing hostages. The following day, when their demands weren’t met, they killed Klinghoffer. After negotiations, the ship traveled to Port Said where the hijackers surrendered to Egyptian authorities and freed the hostages in exchange for safe passage to an undisclosed destination. They then boarded a jet for Tunisia, but were intercepted by U.S. jet fighters who forced them to land at a NATO air base in Sicily, where the hijackers were arrested.