Date: | Saturday 21 February 1970 |
Time: | |
Type: | Sud Aviation SE-210 Caravelle VI-R |
Owner/operator: | Austrian Airlines |
Registration: | OE-LCU |
MSN: | 136 |
Year of manufacture: | 1964 |
Engine model: | Rolls-Royce Avon 533R |
Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 38 |
Aircraft damage: | Substantial, repaired |
Category: | UI |
Location: | near Frankfurt -
Germany
|
Phase: | En route |
Nature: | Passenger - Scheduled |
Departure airport: | Frankfurt International Airport (FRA/EDDF) |
Destination airport: | Wien-Schwechat International Airport (VIE/LOWW) |
Narrative:At FL100, 20 minutes after takeoff from Frankfurt, an explosion in the forward freight hold blew a hole of 3'x2' through the bottom of the fuselage. The Caravelle safely returned to Frankfurt.
On the same day, a bomb exploded aboard a Tel Aviv-bound Convair CV-990 of Swissair after takeoff from Zürich. The aircraft crashed, killing all 47 on board.
It was suspected that the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) was responsible for both attacks. However, the federal prosecutor's office closed the criminal investigation into the perpetrators of the attack in November 2000 because the attackers could not be identified and arrested.
Both bombings led to a UN treaty adopted in 1971, named Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Civil Aviation.
Sources:
Aircraft hijackings and other criminal acts against civil aviation : statistics and narrative reports / FAA
British Pathé Location
Images:
photo (c) ETH-Bibliothek Zürich, Bildarchiv / Swissair; Frankfurt International Airport (FRA/EDDF); 21 February 1970; (CC:by-sa)
photo (c) ETH-Bibliothek Zürich, Bildarchiv / Swissair; Frankfurt International Airport (FRA/EDDF); 21 February 1970; (CC:by-sa)
photo (c) ETH-Bibliothek Zürich, Bildarchiv / Swissair; Frankfurt International Airport (FRA/EDDF); 21 February 1970; (CC:by-sa)
photo (c) ETH-Bibliothek Zürich, Bildarchiv / Swissair; Frankfurt International Airport (FRA/EDDF); 21 February 1970; (CC:by-sa)
photo (c) Carl Ford; London-Heathrow Airport (LHR/EGLL); June 1969
Revision history:
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