The three Arabs who hijacked the KLM Boeing 707 last Sunday with 247 passengers and 10 crew members surrendered today in Dubai and freed the last 11 hostages they were holding after Dubai authorities granted the hijackers the safe conduct they had requested. The 11 freed today were the crew members and the chief of KLM foreign flights operations. The others had been released when the hijacked plane landed yesterday in Malta. Those freed today were unharmed and the aircraft itself was safe, it was reported here.
Earlier, a spokesman for KLM Royal Dutch Airlines said here that the hijacking of one of its jumbo jets Sunday was not directed at the airline company but against The Netherlands. At the same time, the government agreed to the hijackers’ demands that it cease assisting emigration of Soviet Jews to Israel, not supply Israel with arms, prohibit Dutch citizens from joining the Israeli armed forces, and that KLM stop transporting arms to Israel. The government, however, insisted that it was never involved in any of these acts and that The Netherlands had never served as a transit country for Soviet Jews. Dutch Foreign Minister Max van der Stoels sent his gratitude to Libyan and other Arab leaders who helped bring the hijacking to a successful conclusion.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
