A spokesman for Air France confirmed that the company reached an out-of-court agreement Thursday with a passenger involved in the June 1976 hijacking of an Air France airliner to Entebbe, in Uganda.
According to the spokesman, Air France agreed to pay Murray Schwartz the sum of $17,500 of the amount of $1.5 million he claimed in his original lawsuit for damages stemming for the airline’s alleged negligence in allowing the terrorist hijackers to board the plane.
The spokesman said this was the first settlement reached in more than 90 other suits resulting from the hijacking. Most of the suits are still pending against Singapore Airlines and Gulf Air which were alleged to have carried the hijackers before they boarded the Air France plane.
Schwartz, of Encino, California, sought damages because of “fear, anxiety, loss of sleep and fear of death.”
The Entebbe hijacking ended when on Israeli commando mission raided the airport and rescued the hostages.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
