Lufthansa Flight 181

On 13 October 1977, Lufthansa Flight 181, a Boeing 737 named "Landshut," was hijacked approximately 30 minutes after departing Palma de Mallorca for Frankfurt am Main. Four militants of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), operating under the name "Commando Martyr Halima," took control of the aircraft carrying 87 passengers and five crew members. The hijacking was coordinated with the Red Army Faction's "Commando Siegfried Hausner" group, which had kidnapped West German industrialist Hanns Martin Schleyer on 5 September 1977, as part of the broader period of unrest known as the German Autumn. The hijackers demanded the release of eleven RAF members held in West German prisons, two Palestinians held in Turkey, and $15 million.

The aircraft was diverted through Rome, Larnaca, Bahrain, Dubai, and finally made a forced landing on an unpaved airstrip near Aden, South Yemen, after multiple airports refused it landing clearance. In Aden, Captain Jürgen Schumann was permitted to leave the plane to inspect its airworthiness and spoke with local authorities in an apparent attempt to keep the aircraft grounded. Upon his return after a prolonged absence, hijacker leader Zohair Yousif Akache — using the alias "Captain Mahmoud" — accused Schumann of betrayal and shot him in the head in front of passengers, including children. His body was later removed from the aircraft after it reached Mogadishu, Somalia, on 17 October.

At Mogadishu International Airport, the hijackers set deadlines for the prisoner release, threatened to detonate the aircraft, and doused hostages in alcohol and perfume while tying them with nylon tights. West German officials, including special envoy Hans-Jürgen Wischnewski and GSG 9 commander Ulrich Wegener, coordinated with Somali authorities to allow a rescue operation. In the early hours of 18 October 1977, roughly 60 GSG 9 counter-terrorism commandos, supported by two British SAS operatives who supplied stun grenades, and with a diversionary explosion staged by Somali forces, stormed the aircraft in an operation codenamed "Feuerzauber" (Magic Fire). During a firefight lasting a few minutes, three of the four hijackers — Zohair Akache, Wabil Harb, and Hind Alameh — were killed, and the fourth, Souhaila Andrawes Sayeh, was critically wounded but survived. One GSG 9 commando was wounded, and flight attendant Gabriele Dillmann and several passengers sustained minor injuries from a grenade detonated by a dying hijacker. All 87 passengers and the four surviving crew members were rescued unharmed.

Captain Jürgen Schumann was posthumously awarded the German Federal Cross of Merit 1st Class for his conduct during the hijacking. Co-pilot Jürgen Vietor and flight attendants Hannelore Piegler, Anna-Maria Staringer, and Gabriele Dillmann were also awarded the Federal Cross of Merit for their conduct supporting passengers throughout the five-day ordeal. Akache had previously been wanted by Scotland Yard in connection with the April 1977 killing of a former Yemeni prime minister, his wife, and a Yemeni diplomat in London. The hijacking, and West Germany's hardline response authorized by Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, is regarded as a pivotal event in the state's confrontation with the Red Army Faction during the German Autumn.