Iraqi Airways Flight 163
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Iraqi Airways Flight 163 was an Iraqi Airways Boeing 737-270C, registry YI-AGJ, that was hijacked in 1986. On December 25, 1986, en route from Saddam International Airport (now Baghdad International Airport) in Baghdad to Amman, Jordan, Flight 163 was hijacked by four men. Iraqi Airways security personnel tried to stop the hijackers, but one grenade was thrown into the passenger cabin. It exploded, initiating an emergency descent. Another hand grenade exploded in the cockpit, crashing the plane into the ground near Arar, Saudi Arabia where it broke in two and caught fire.
There were 106 people on the plane, and 63 of them died. The surviving passengers were able to tell authorities what transpired on the plane. The hijacking was one of the worst ever, and was one of many others in the time from 1985 to 1986.
Shortly after the hijacking, the pro-Iranian group "Islamic Jihad" (a widely used name for Hezbollah) claimed responsibility. One of the dead hijackers was later identified by the CIA as a Lebanese national named Ribal Khalil Jallul, whose passport photo was matched to a Hezbollah martyr poster found near a mosque in Beirut.1 Iraq accused Iran of being behind the attack.
[edit] References
1 Robert Baer, See No Evil, Three Rivers Press, 2002. p 113
