[2] Their conclusion was right, as Fischer had indeed been arrested and would later be sentenced to eight years of jail in East Germany for preparing their Republikflucht ("desertion from the Republic"), a crime under GDR law.

[3] On 30 August 1978, Tiede and Ruske hijacked a Polish LOT Tupolev Tu-134 airliner with 62 passengers making Flight 165 from Gdańsk to East Berlin.

Tiede, armed with the toy starting pistol, took a flight attendant hostage and succeeded in forcing the aircraft to land at Tempelhof Airport in West Berlin.

[4][6] US federal judge Herbert Jay Stern ruled that the defendants were entitled to be tried by a jury, as guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution, a procedure abolished in Germany by the Emminger Reform of 1924.

[4] Stern accounted for Tiede's emergency situation and plight to face imprisonment in East Germany for attempted Republikflucht.