D-ABCE) named Landshut, was hijacked on 13 October 1977 by four militants of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine while en route from Palma de Mallorca, Spain, to Frankfurt am Main, West Germany.

[3] The hijackers diverted the flight to several locations before ending in Mogadishu, Somalia, where the crisis concluded in the early morning hours of 18 October 1977 under the cover of darkness.

[3] The West German counter-terrorism unit GSG 9, with ground support from the Somali Armed Forces, stormed the aircraft, rescuing all 87 passengers and four crew members.

[3] It was directly linked to the dramatic kidnapping in Braunsfeld, Cologne, of Hanns Martin Schleyer, a prominent West German industrialist, by the Red Army Faction (RAF) "Commando Siegfried Hausner" group on 5 September 1977.

[25] Aribert Martin, one of the West German GSG 9 commandos who stormed the Lufthansa Landshut aircraft in Mogadishu to rescue the hostages, recalled, "The first thing that hit me was an unbelievable stench.

[1][2] The hijackers were able to board the aircraft carrying two concealed pistols, four hand grenades, and 500 grams (18 oz) of plastic explosive due to lax airport security in Palma, Spain.

As the other three hijackers knocked over food trays and ordered the hostages to put their hands on their heads, Mahmoud coerced Captain Schumann to fly east to Larnaca in Cyprus but was told that the plane had insufficient fuel and would have to land in Rome first.

[3] They demanded the release of all "comrades" imprisoned in the Federal Republic (West Germany), specifically the eleven Red Army Faction (RAF) terrorists detained predominantly at the supermax Stammheim Prison in Stuttgart.

[3] After consulting with his colleagues, Cossiga decided that the most desirable solution for the Italian government was to rid itself of the problem altogether and not become a target of international terrorism through forceful action.

The lives of the passengers and crew and the life of Dr. Hanns Martin Schleyer depends on your fulfilling the following demands: 13 October 1977, Organization for the Fight against World Imperialism.

[12] In Dubai, the hijackers instructed the control tower to send airport crew staff to empty the toilet tanks, supply food, water, medicine, and newspapers, and take away the rubbish.

The aircraft remained parked on the tarmac at Dubai International Airport throughout Saturday, 15 October, during which the jet airliner experienced technical snags with the electrical generator, air conditioning, and auxiliary power unit breaking down.

After Riyadh in Saudi Arabia also closed and blockaded its airport runways at 14:50 CET on 16 October (three days after the hijacking began), a course was set to Aden in South Yemen, at the limit of the plane's fuel range.

[26][38][39] It was believed that this act was also meant to strengthen the demands of the joint operation between the Red Army Faction (RAF) and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFPL).

Schumann's corpse, which had been stored in a coat closet on board the flight throughout the final leg of the journey, was dumped via the aircraft's right rear door onto the tarmac and whisked away in an ambulance.

[26] While West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt attempted to negotiate an agreement with Somali President Siad Barre from Bonn, special envoy Hans-Jürgen Wischnewski, GSG 9 commander Ulrich Wegener, and his adjutants Dieter Fox and officer Frieder Baum, who had all been trailing the hijacked Landshut flight and monitoring the situation as part of Wischnewski's mobile crisis management team, arrived at Mogadishu from Jeddah.

[36][41] In West Germany, a team of approximately 60 GSG 9 Federal Border Guard (Bundesgrenzschutz) counter-terrorism commandos consisting of two units as well as technicians, field telecoms engineers, and paramedics,[2] led by Wegener's deputy commander, Klaus Blätte, had already assembled at Sankt Augustin-Hangelar near Bonn and were on standby, awaiting instructions.

[46] After the GSG 9 observation and sniper command reported over the radio that the two male hijackers and the co-pilot were in the cockpit, the assault teams approached their assigned aircraft doors, put up their rubber-tipped aluminum ladders, and waited for the order to enter.

[2][6][28][36] Two British SAS operators threw new types of diversionary "flashbang" stun grenades into the air over the front exterior of the cockpit to distract and cause confusion inside.

[2][36][43] Shouting in German and English for the passengers and crew to get their heads down, the GSG 9 assault teams shot all four terrorists, killing Hind Alameh, Wabil Harb, and Zohair Akache (Mahmoud), and critically wounding Souhaila Andrawes Sayeh.

"[49] In press news footage, one female hijacker who survived her gunshot wounds, Andrawes Sayeh, was seen lying on a stretcher covered in blood after being shot in the legs and lungs.

[53][54] After the successful rescue operation, commendations from around the world poured into Bonn, many accompanied by requests for police training from the elite West German GSG 9 counter-terrorism unit.

[3] An ad hoc team was then set up in London, consisting of representatives of the British Foreign and Defence Ministries, the MI6 Secret Service, other Arabia experts, and the ambassador of the United Arab Emirates.

[53][54] Following the rescue of the hostages from Lufthansa Flight 181, RAF (Red Army Faction) members Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin, and Jan-Carl Raspe were found dead (allegedly by suicide) on the same night at the supermax Stammheim Prison in Stuttgart.

[17][36][55] On Wednesday, 19 October, the body of German industry president Hanns Martin Schleyer, who had been kidnapped by the RAF some five weeks before the hijacking and was held hostage for 43 days, was found in the trunk of a green Audi 100 with Bad Homburg registration plates on a side street, rue Charles-Péguy, in Mulhouse, Alsace, France, close to the French-Swiss and French-German borders.

[58] TAF stopped service of the aircraft under registration PT-MTB in January 2008, owing to severe damage that made it unairworthy, and placed it in storage in Fortaleza Airport for years.

[59] On 14 August 2017, after Mr Kurpjuweit made inquiries to Fraport about scrapping seven or more abandoned aircraft at the airport, an ex-pilot group suggested bringing the plane back to Germany.

The city highlighted to Culture Minister Grütters the aircraft's connection to Munich, where it had been christened on 7 August 1970 in a Riem Airport hangar in the presence of a large delegation from Landshut.

[76] €15 million was made available from the German federal government, in the following allotments: On 22 October 2024, the former Landshut aircraft fuselage was towed from a storage hangar to its display hall about 450 meters away on the grounds of Friedrichshafen Airport.

The song "RAF" by Brian Eno and Snatch (Judy Nylon and Patti Palladin) was created using sound elements from a Baader Meinhof ransom message available by public telephone at the time of the hijacking.