European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 20, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 2 the stars and stripes thursday october 20, 1977 Hail of gunfire7 West German official reconstruct dramatic Rescue action at Mogadishu Bonn a German commandos who stormed a hijacked Lufthansa Airliner were met with a Hail of gunfire and exploding grenades in a brutal Battle in the midst of 86 hostages Interior minister Werner Maihofer said wednesday. Speaking in the present tense Maihofer reconstructed the seven minute Battle at a news conference describing How the crack unit 9 commandos at first eliminated two of the four terrorists after determined resistance in the cockpit. Earlier Story. Page 14. He continued. Another terrorist in the first class compartment. Opens fire from there. And although hit by two bul lets he then hurls a hand grenade toward the rear of the plane. This explodes under a seat. Another grenade detonated and after this terrorist is hit by More bullets this May help you to measure the brutality of the fight he detonates another grenade even while falling which in Jures several hostages in the  when this resistance had been eliminated suddenly a terrorist later found to be a woman in the rear toilet opens fire on unit 9 through the door before being gunned Down too by the troops Mai Hofer  said one member of unit 9 Border guard group 9 was shot through the neck during the furious fight. He described the wound As slight. Eleven hostages were treated for wounds after the Battle at Mogadishu air port in Somalia but five were subsequently flown Back to Germany with the other freed passengers and Crew. Previously no official casualty figures had been Given but sources said there had been no serious injuries among the hos tages. Three terrorists died in the raid tuesday and the fourth a woman was seriously wounded. Full support of Somalia government envoy Hans Jirgen Wischnewski said the raid was carried out with the full support of the somalian govern ment. He said president Siad Barre agreed to let the commandos storm the Boeing 737 because of humanitarian  another reason was that there had been years of cooperation Between West German and somalian police forces under the Bonn government s development Aid program to the african state Wischnewski said. The final reason which convinced Soma Lian authorities that there was no other option was the absolutely hard attitude of the terrorists Wischnewski said. He disclosed that the somalian three times offered the terrorists free passage out out the country if they would release their hostages unharmed but each time they angrily refused. Maihofer said Wischnewski and Soma Lian authorities at Mogadishu had decided at 7 10 . Local monday to launch the attack after the somalian had succeeded in getting the terrorists to extend their deadline  terrorists had threatened to blow up the aircraft unless West Germany freed 11 jailed terrorists and the turkish govern ment released two palestinian guerrillas. Continuing his chronology of the action Maihofer said at 7 10 . Local the special Lufthansa plane with the forces of unit 9 landed at Mogadishu Airport. And taxied to a parking area 2,000 meters away. The forces of unit 9 were greeted by the local commander of the somali Security forces the units immediately thereafter started to get themselves equipped with weapons and material according to their orders. Everything necessary for this was inside the plane. At 00 25 local after communications with the command Headquarters were established scouts reported their first patrol of the area around the plane. At 1 15 . Tuesday the commandos and technical specialists moved in reach ing attack stations 15 minutes  Maihofer said movements were reported inside the plane s cockpit at that time. At 1 50 ., the commandos and somali Security forces began diversionary moves to confuse the terrorists. Two minutes later attack positions outside the plane were reached and re serve forces moved in nearby. Somalian forces had already secured the Airport perimeter. At 2 05 ., under leadership of their commander the forces invaded the plane upon being Given the code word Feuer Zauber magic fire the Interior minis Ter said. One minute later he said there was defiant resistance inside the cockpit evacuation of the hostages from the rear of the plane began at 2 07 . The fighting was still going on inside the cock pit. It was important to get the passengers off the plane As quickly As possible in the face of a possible explosion. At 2 12 ., seven minutes after the Start of the operation command Headquarters received the code word springtime signalling the end of the action. And unit 9 was Able to report Gegner Niederle Kampet German for opponent Defeated Maihofer said All the hostages were off the plane at 2 15 . And the commandos assembled at the rear of the plane while special technicians went aboard to Neutral ize explosive devices placed by the terrorists. At 2 20 . Somali Security officials and German Federal criminal office investigators took control of the Bullet scar red plane Maihofer said. The commandos returned to their As Sembly Point at 3 . And began loading equipment into the plane. A half hour later they were flying Home to  identities of the two men and two women terrorists have not been released but Mai Hofer said it looks As though there were no German terrorists among  Bonn says Pilot tried to help hostages Captain s conduct praised Bonn a government and Luft Hansa officials tuesday defended the Pilot executed before 86 hostages on a hijacked Jet As having performed outstandingly  freed hostages had described on their return to Frankfurt tuesday How the hijackers forced capt. Jirgen Schumann to Kneel and tried to make him confess to at tempting to run away before shopping him in front of everyone. Chancellery minister Hans Jirgen Wischnewski and Interior minister Werner Maihofer told a news conference How Schu Mann had hour after hour dealt with the terrorists and slipped valuable information to authorities. Werner utter a member of the Lufthansa Board of directors said Copilot Jirgen Vietor told them Schumann was shot in the face by a Hijacker sunday night after the Pilot returned from trying to persuade yemeni officials not to Force the plane Totake off again. Both the hijackers and the Crew wanted to stay in Aden South Yemen where they had virtually crash landed on Sand be cause they were running out of fuel and yemeni authorities had blocked the runway to keep the plane from Landing. Utter said Schumann had arranged at the beginning of the hijacking to turn the handling of the plane Over to Vietor while he talked with the hijackers and directed the three stewardesses. The Landing in Aden was As a result of commissaries propose keeping present hours we Brucken Germany is Al though a worldwide cutback of troop sup port Agency Tsa funds by Congress has led to directives to Cut Back on commis sary hours Usa eur patrons need not worry says Roy Ballinger Deputy director Tsa european Field office. We already Are on a Short work week Well within the limits of any current directives. Only two stores Aschaffenbur and Augsburg Are open six Days a week. The rest Are on a five Day week closed on mondays and  Ballinger notes too that Tsa is still urging that local commissaries provide additional shopping hours when needed Suchias on sundays before paydays. Not All Usa eur commissaries pro vide this sunday shopping and the Tsa Deputy director says it s possible that in the future the extra service May have to be eliminated. At present however he says no changes in commissary hours Are planned. In any Case he concludes there always will be the Money to operate on an eight hour five Day  Safe commissaries also will continuing operating As at  european Region air Force commissary service a coms currently i aware of no plans to reduce the number of shopping hours in commissaries i Europe says Bill Morrison Deputy com Mander of a coms which has its head quarters in Ramstein Germany. The empty tanks equivalent to a crash Landing utter said. In View of the blocked runway the Pilot had Only the Choice of Landing on the water or in the  he chose the Sand Landing. Because they All feared that this Landing would end in a crash the Captain Copilot and terrorists Shook hands with each other once More before the Landing because they just could t believe that the plane could stand such a Landing according to the account. Surprisingly the Landing went Well. But the yemenis wanted to Force the plane to leave Aden immediately. Apparently neither the terrorists nor the pilots wanted to do that. Then the yemenis sent two men to the plane and said they wanted to inspect the Landing gear in order to determine whether the plane was airworthy Bonn officials were told. Schumann ostensibly to convince him self of the aircraft s airworthiness received permission from the terrorists to leave the cockpit to inspect the Landing gear. Schumann then went toward the yemeni authorities demanding to speak to someone in a position to prevent the plane s taking off again the Copilot was quoted As saying. After All it was dark he went on and the terrorists had lost sight of the Captain at that distance and one of them gave orders Over a megaphone that the Captain should come Back immediately be cause otherwise he the terrorist would blow up the  Schumann accompanied by one or More yemenis then returned to the plane. The terrorist Leader reportedly raved with anger and screamed at the Pilot in English polish police prevent Hijack try to Vienna Warsaw up polish police pre vented the hijacking of a polish Airliner to Austria polish newspapers  attempt was made at Warsaw air port by one or several hijackers who wanted to Force the Crew to Fly to Vienna the report  and the Crew succeeded in foiling the attempt. Nobody was Hurt in the Inci Dent it was added. The reports did not elaborate on the identity of the Hijacker and also gave no details on the plane beyond stating that twas on a Domestic flight from Katowice to Warsaw. Are you guilty according to Victor s statement Schu Mann tried to explain that he was looking for somebody to talk out of forcing the plane to take off again. He was unable to finish his explanation to the terrorist Leader because he was forced by him to Kneel Down and the terrorist then killed him with a shot in the face Vietor was quoted As saying. Especially valuable for strategists in Bonn was the information that Schumann worked into a routine communication to the Rome control Tower shortly after the hijacking that two women two men were aboard. This was especially valuable to us be cause then we knew what we were dealing with Maihofer said. Wischnewski said Security officials inspecting garbage during the Stop in Dubai found four uns Moked cigars which they took to reconfirm that four terrorists were aboard. From our Point of View this Man acted quite outstandingly and Exempla Rily. Especially in Dubai we witnessed hour after hour his efforts first to inform us and second act in a Way that the hostages could be helped Wischnewski said. 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