Bombs for Croatia

TWA flight 355 was 95 minutes out of New York City on its way to Chicago when a band of passengers declared to the crew that they had other, meticulously crafted plans for the Boeing 727 and its 92 passengers and crew members. The plane was being skyjacked to advertise independence for Croatia, one of Yugoslavia's six republics and long a region of simmering separatism. Thus began a bizarre and improbable skyjacking, the first to succeed in the U.S. in nearly four years. It was the latest blow struck by Croatian separatists, who have been waging a campaign of assassination, bombing and blackmail for several years.

The terrorists seized control of flight 355 by threatening that at least one of the group would detonate an explosive he had presumably carried on board under his clothes; such a bomb would not be detectable with present airport security systems. The leader was a beefy, bearded man. "He was the goon, but he was nice," recalled one passenger, James Perkins, a regional sales manager for Schenley. "He kept his hand in his pocket all the time, as if he had a gun." One of the skyjackers was a young woman who claimed she was an American and was married to another member of the group. The terrorists were polite once in command, distributing to all the passengers leaflets explaining their organization, "Fighters for Free Croatia," and their aims. But they ordered the plane to turn north toward Montreal, where it landed at Mirabel International Airport and was refueled.

While that was being done, the skyjackers gave instructions to the pilot, who relayed them to the air controller. A bomb had been placed in a coin locker in the subway station at Grand Central Station in Manhattan. Along with it was a rambling 1,600-word "appeal to the American People" and a 2,500-word declaration of independence for the 4.4 million Croatians, who are a fifth of Yugoslavia's population. The terrorists demanded that these be published next day in five major newspapers (the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, the International Herald Tribune). If this was done, said the conspirators, the hostages would be released. If it was not, another hidden bomb would be detonated in a "highly busy location" in the U.S.

In extracting the bomb and the messages from the locker, New York police took successful precautions. They were not so fortunate in attempting to defuse the bomb, which was sealed in a home pressure cooker. When a detonating device failed to explode the bomb, four policemen went to have a closer look, and the bomb suddenly went off. One officer, his chest blown away, died instantly. The others were severely wounded.

Hopscotch Flight. The plane had meanwhile taken off from Montreal on what was to be a hopscotch flight across the Atlantic, stopping in Gander, Newfoundland, and Iceland for fuel, escorted by a TWA Boeing 707, since the 727 lacked navigational equipment for transatlantic flight. At Gander, 35 of the hostages were released, for reasons as diverse as the one offered by a man who said his wife was about to have a baby, or that of a woman who said she would otherwise miss a bridal shower. At some of their stops, the skyjackers off loaded bundles of propaganda pamphlets with precise instructions that they were to be dropped from the air on various cities. Soon the pink sheets were fluttering down on Montreal, Chicago, New York, London and Paris.

The skyjackers' initial European destination was London, but the British government refused them permission to land. The French government was more accommodating, and the plane with its remaining hostages and crew of seven set down at Charles de Gaulle Airport near Paris. But once they had the plane on the ground, the French turned tough, declaring that under no circumstances would they allow it to leave. With that, the skyjackers, after talking directly with U.S. Ambassador to France Kenneth Rush, gave up, releasing the hostages unharmed. The five were flown back to the U.S. to face charges. It turned out that they had been bluffing; their "explosives" were fakes.

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