Terrorists hijack a holiday flight full of civilians. They rig the plane with high explosives. One press of a button, the whole aircraft could be destroyed. Over the next 6 days, the attackers show no mercy. They just change the dynamics of the game. When you you kill an innocent person, the terrorists seem to hold all the cards. is a bad bad target to attack. With a massacre just seconds away, the special forces team have to go in. When death comes through the door, all they think about is stopping those people in black coming towards them. One of the male terrorists appears with two hand grenades. These are deadly moments. The lives of 86 innocent hostages are in the balance. The rescue mission will go down in special forces history. Operation Fire Magic. [Music] October the 13th, 1977. Lu Hanser flight LH181 takes off from the island of Morca. X3 call under control. It sets a course over the Mediterranean Sea. On board a five crew and 86 passengers. Flight LH181 was a typical holiday flight from Palmer Yorker back to Frankfurt. People had just enjoyed a good holiday. They were relaxed. They had a good time. Nobody could conceive what was about to happen. As the pilot steers homewardbound towards Germany, [Music] there were two terrorists at the back of the plane, two terrorists at the front. They're screaming. They're shouting. The terrorists had pistols and grenades. The passengers realized instantly this is a hijack situation. The four terrorists heard the passengers to the back of the plane. They want all of the hostages where they can see them. First thing they want to do is create fear on that plane. They grab a steartist and they hit so hard that it crushes their face. [Music] It showed everybody on the plane that these guys are meaning business. In the cockpit, Captain Jurgen Schuman and co-pilot Jurgen Vietto are held at gunpoint. in now. See, see, they have no choice. They surrender to the terrorists. Captain Schuman is forced to set a course for Rome, Italy. It is time, my friends. The terrorists are in total control. The leader begins to mock his hostages. He announced to all the passengers that he had taken over the aircraft and that he was in control. This was a moment of sheer terror for all the passengers. Answer me, sir. They knew that everything had changed and their lives were on the line now. [Music] The plane is now near the south of France. The flight to Rome will take just over an [Music] hour. When the plane touches down, the terrorists radio the Italians in the control tower. Only now do they reveal what they want. [Applause] The attack is the work of the PFLP, the Popular Front for the liberation of Palestine. During the 1970s, this group of political terrorists had been involved in hijacks across the world and had a history of [Music] murder. They were fanatically committed to their cause and they were wanting to see this through to the end. If you comply with our instructions, one of the most dangerous terrorists in the PFLP is leading the hijack. He calls himself Captain Martr Makmoud. The leader Makmood seemed to be really powerful within the group of four terrorists inside the aircraft. and he would destroy the aircraft or he would kill people in order to get his own way. This 22-year-old fanatic is a formidable opponent. Captain Mahmood's real name was Zuher Akache. He had grown up in the refugee camps in the Middle East where he'd become radicalized. But he was also a clever man. He trained in aeronautical engineering in the UK and he learned how to fly Cessna aircraft. I said listen. Mahmood reads his demands to the Italian authorities. The PFLP want $15 million. The release from prison of two Palestinian terrorists and 11 members of the notorious Bardam Minhof group. These left-wing militants had embarked on a campaign of bombings, assassinations, and kidnappings within Germany. If these dangerous terrorists aren't freed and all of Makmoud's terms aren't met, his team will destroy the plane and kill all of the hostages. Tell me you're stupid. Say it. [Music] In Germany, the job of dealing with the crisis lands on the desk of Hans Jurgen Vishnvki, a minister in the German government. Vishnvki had a number of very difficult roles to fulfill. One was to negotiate with all the countries in which the aircraft landed and to gain approval for armed action if necessary. The other, of course, was to negotiate with the terrorists. And the key point was buy time. The more time you had, the more space you had in which to act. With 87 hostages lives at stake, there's no time to waste. One of the first calls Vishnvki makes is to Germany's elite special forces team, GSG9. GSG9 is a law enforcement swap team that are highly trained. Uh they're trained in diving, they're trained in parachuting, coming out of helicopters, fast roping, they're trained in sniper operations, and of course close quarters combat. GSG9 cracking force. You know, they ain't going to be fluffy about things. They're going to get on with the mission and [Music] sorted. GSG9 were born out of one of the darkest days in postwar German history. September the 5th, 1972, the Munich Olympics. Palestinian terrorists take Israeli athletes hostage. The German police launch a rescue raid, but it goes badly wrong. All of the hostages are killed. GSG9, a specialist anti-terrorist unit, is created just 6 months later, so the same mistakes aren't made again. They got pistols. The new team is led by 48-year-old Urik Veer. Colonel Veger was the driving force behind GSG9. He had some experience working with the British SAS, also had experience working with Israeli special forces groups, and he was able to take a lot of that knowledge and create this souped up SWAT team that primarily focused on anti-terrorism. [Music] Vega immediately realizes that attacking the hijacked plane will be an extremely difficult mission. He puts in a call. Barry Davies has spent years training with Britain's crack troops, the SAS. The SCS had decided to set up counterterrorist teams and that had already been done some years before we practice on aircraft. Assaults were were a big one. You know, how quickly you can get in from a starting point to actually closing with a terrorist and uh saving the hostages. The SAS have pioneered new techniques and equipment to deal with plane hijacks. Critically, they have experience dealing with terrorists in Malaya and Northern Ireland. The SCS were world leaders in counterterrorism. And I guess GSG thought, yeah, let's let's have an observer team on board to see, you know, if they can help us out. Within hours of the Germans request, Davies and one of his SAS colleagues prepare to fly out and join the assault team. [Music] In Rome, the hijacked plane takes off after being refueled by the Italian authorities. On board, Mahmood forces pilot Jurgen Schuman to fly towards the Middle East, looking for somewhere new to land. Captain Schuman has to pilot the aircraft to destinations that hadn't been planned, destinations that are refusing him entry, and all the while with a gun at his head on the threat of the aircraft being [Music] destroyed. The plane flies from Rome to Cyprus. It is then denied landing rights in Beirut, Damascus, and Baghdad. It's allowed a 1 and a half hour stop in Bahrain before being forced to fly on to Dubai. It's been over 15 hours since the hijack began. For now, flight LH181 is allowed to stay on the runway in Dubai. The passengers endure stifling heat, hunger, and dehydration. It was a pressure cooker inside the aircraft. The terrorists eventually allow food and water on board, but the conditions inside continue to deteriorate. Hans Jurgen Vishnvki, the politician in charge of the operation, flies into Dubai and begins negotiations with the government there. The politicians behind the scenes have to make sure that is okay to bring another country's special operations force into a host country and conduct a mission. I mean that takes delicate political maneuvering to be able to get that accomplished. But Vishnvki cannot convince the Dubai authorities to allow the main GSG9 team in to carry out the rescue mission. They insist on using local troops who don't have any specialist training. Only Vega and two other GSG9 officers are allowed to land. The rest of the GSG9 team remain grounded. But there is some good news. The Dubai authorities do allow the twoman British unit in to join Vega. We got on the plane, flew to Dubai. We then introduced ourselves to Veer. We started talking and uh it was like meeting a long lost brother. Vega and Davies immediately start to plan for the attack. First, they need to know exactly what they're up against. [Music] Gathering intelligence on the enemy is critical. You need to know how many there are. You need to know what type of weapons they've got. Have they got explosives? Your intelligence will be able to help you decipher who are the good guys and who are the bad guys. On the plane, Captain Schuman takes an extraordinary risk. He seems to take a routine cigar break and throws the packet onto the runway. He dropped the packet outside and somebody had had the the foresight to pick it up. It might not seem like much, but it contains vital intelligence for Vega. Inside the packet, Vega finds four cigars. They are a pre-arranged coded message between Lufansa pilots and Germany's security forces. There were four in the pack. Two of them were broken, which indicated there were two men and two women. And this was was correct. Thanks to Schuman, Vega now knows exactly how many terrorists he's up against. [Music] On the runway, the plane's air conditioning unit stops working. They were on the tarmac where it's 120°. Terrorists are tired, passengers are tired, thirsty, you name it. You know, highly stressed on that plane. The toilets were overflowing. Passengers were vomiting. They were passing out. So, the interior of the aircraft becomes an incredibly hostile place to be. The airport authorities try to get the plane's air conditioning system running, but they pump fuel into the wrong tank. It forces the terrorists to open the plane's doors for fresh air. It's another intelligence opportunity for Vega. [Music] They reveal themselves to photographers who took pictures of them. This helped GSG9 to identify them so that when they got on the aircraft, they could see exactly who were the terrorists and who were the civilians. The terrorists distinctive cheuvara t-shirts mark them out as clear targets. It's a start, but Vega is a long way off being ready to go. The assault team don't have all the specialist kit they need for the attack, and nor do the army in Dubai. We made a list of kit what we needed. Ladders, shotguns, pistols, and everything else. We we really wanted masking tape, axes. The authorities in Dubai may not have all the equipment to hand, but they do have one thing, money. We then had two quarter masses. With um so much money you could chug a camel, and all they did was just go back into town and buy whatever we needed. Once the equipment arrives, the team goes to work. They saw off shotguns so they're easier to use in a confined space. They spray equipment black so it won't reflect light. Even the ladders are adjusted for the height of the hijacked 737. And we got to work getting people sawing the ladders the right length. Uh there's a manual actually on on what length the ladders have to be for what type of aircraft. Although most of the tools the team have to hand are low tech, Barry has brought along a new SAS weapon that's cutting [Music] edge. We developed a lot of quite exciting assets to help us. One of them is stung grenade. The stun grenades create a series of flashes and loud [Music] bangs. Best way to describe it, if you go to disco sometimes and they flash the blue lights and everybody seems to move in a sort of jerky way. Well, if you can imagine that with high explosive in between each jerk and that disorientated the terrorist enough so he can close with them. The aim is to create a moment of confusion that will allow Vega's team to board the plane. Stun grenade back then was the latest technology. Absolutely invaluable as a distraction. Absolutely ideal in the aircraft. [Music] Flight LH181 has been in Dubai now for over 2 days. Get your passports open. Worryingly for Vega, Mahmood is becoming more unhinged. He goes through the hostages passports, identifying those he thinks are Jewish. Jewish. This could have ominous implications for certain passages should Mahmoo decide to start executing people. At times he delivers lectures on Palestinian politics. One is over an hour long. A scarcely coherent rant. And he gets so fired up by the speech that he ends up discharging his gun. This is just one example of how his mental state is deteriorating as the hijack goes on. [Music] At the other end of the airfield, a replica 737 has been commandeered. Vagner's team of GSG9, SAS, and local Dubai Defense Force troops now use it to rehearse the assault. My task was to train a team to actually take over the aircraft. Because the squad hasn't worked together before, Barry goes back to basics. So, we had a team. I explained exactly what we're going to do, and we would do it as simple as possible. And the idea was to go in through the two emergency hatches either side, get past the passengers into the aisle, one twoman team would go forward, one twoman team would go to the rear, killing everything in this way until we got control of the aircraft. Barry walks each person through the drill. I chocked each person on the back and when I said go, you go there. When I said do this, they went there and and that's how it worked. When you actually start training and you've done it uh the drill for five or six times, then you can do it without being instructed. So, we just honed on everything then, but you could do it quicker. Eventually, they knew exactly what to do. The aircraft. After hours of training, the team are ready. Vishnvki finally gets the clearance for the raid from the authorities. And we had a green light to go that night and we would have taken them out that night. The assault team make their final preparations. You just had the feeling it was going to go. But then we saw the plane taking off and then we were told that the the plane had just left on its own accord. We actually thought it was over. I mean there was a lot of disappointment. We thought we were going to return to UK. Operation Fire Magic has suffered a major setback. On board flight LH181, Makmoud forces Captain Schuman to set a course south. You are messing about. The hijacked plane leaves Dubai and heads towards the country then known as South Yemen and its capital city, Aiden. During the 3-hour flight, the terrorists reveal a terrifying surprise. The terrorists took on board with them about 2 kilos of plastic explosive. They rigged the aircraft, making it effectively into a flying bomb. One press of a button, the whole aircraft could be destroyed. [Music] If that wasn't bad enough, another crisis looms as the plane near South Yemen. Captain Schuman is refused permission to land. The runway in Aiden had been blocked. The radio commands say you cannot land here. But flight LH181 is running on empty and there are no airports nearby. Schuman, however, knows he has no choice. The fuel is exceptionally low. Without permission, Schuman decides he's going to land on a rough strip next to the main runway. Its soft, sandy surface could cause the plane to flip when it touches down. This is a rough landing. They are braced for disaster. Schuman makes it. His passengers are safe for now. But it's only a temporary relief. The Yemen authorities want flight LH181 straight back into the air. Schuman is worried his plane isn't airworthy after the emergency landing. He wants to go outside and inspect it. Yes, you can. Incredibly, Mahmood can sensed this. Being an aeronautical engineer, he understands that the undercarriage needs to be in sound condition. Schuman checks underneath the plane. He finds no serious damage, but he still has no fuel and needs to speak to the Yemen authorities. Crucially, without Mahmood's permission, he walks across the runway and goes to the Aiden control tower to talk with officials there. Mahmood thinks Schuman is escaping and is insensed. The airport authorities don't want to get involved. Schuman is forced to go back to his plane. I warned you. Why did you defy? Makmoud turns on him. A terrible silence fell over the aircraft after the shot, and people knew that the situation was changing into a dramatic new sphere. You look out. Whether Mahmood intended it or not by murdering Schuman, there's now little hope of a negotiated settlement. When you you kill an innocent person, they just change the dynamics of the game. And now the mission is going to happen. You know, it's going to happen. There's no doubt in in any of the team members minds it's going to happen. It probably needs to go sooner than later. There was a total mood change with everybody from now on. We follow them to the end of the earth. But for now, the GSG9 team have to wait. The authorities in South Yemen refuse them permission to enter their country. After 10 hours on the ground, the Yemenes want the plane gone, and flight LH181 is refueled and on the move [Music] again. Mahmood now forces co-pilot Jurgen Viet to set a new course. [Music] This time, flight LH181 flies from the Middle East to Africa. Its destination, Mogadishu. It is the capital city of the country then known as the Somali Democratic Republic. A stable regime with good relations with the West. In the early morning, the plane touches down at Mogadishu airport. Captain Schuman's body is unceremoniously dumped on the tarmac. Mahmood begins negotiations with Somali police and German embassy staff. What they hear alarms them. Mahmood's mental state has completely deteriorated. So you have tired terrorists that you're dealing with and people are can start dying really fast. He's becoming increasingly unstable as the minutes go by. Blame me for an idiot. Mahmood sets a new ultimatum. Think I'm stupid. If his German and Palestinian comrades are not released and the $15 million not delivered by 3:00 that afternoon, the plane and everyone in it will be blown up. [Music] Shortly afterwards, a plane carrying Colonel Veagan, Barry Davies, and a small military team touches down. Hanzyan Vishnvki, the politician, is also on board with the negotiating team. He pleads with Makmoud for an extension to his deadline. Even if he could secure the release of the prisoners, there is not enough time to get them from Europe to Mogadishu before the time limit expires. Vishnvki's negotiations with Mahmood became increasingly fraught as the hijacking went on. Makmoud decides to show he means business. With half an hour to go before his deadline expires, he prepares to incinerate the aircraft and its occupants. What they did do was use the duty-free alcohol and they poured alcohol over them so they burned quickly. And he actually told them that's what they were doing it for. The people inside the aircraft got the feeling that they were getting close to the end. Now comes now. Gabby Dilman, one of the cabin crew, relays a message to the team in the control tower. Feeling abandoned by the German government. It is a desperate farewell. We know this is the end and that and that we shall die. Many of us are too young to die. Still, it is better to die than to live in a world where human lives count for so little. I hope it will be quick. She makes a heartfelt plea for their lives, but also there's a very bleak note to it. She mentions at one point, "We know that this is the end and we shall all die." Vishnvki realizes he's out of time and adopts a high-risk strategy. He lies to Mahmood and tells him exactly what he wants to hear. anything. They were being talked to and told that they'd won and told them they could have the money and told them they could actually talk to their friends who were being released from jails in Germany and would be on an aircraft and they could talk to them very soon. All these things gave them some hope that they were going to win and they were going to live. Vishneski's gamble works. Makmoud believes his comrades have been released. He extends the deadline by 10 hours to give them time to be flown to Somalia. Vishnvki and the special forces team now have until 2:30 the following morning to launch the attack. [Music] Yeah, very difficult situation. Now, Vishnvki asks the Somali government to let the rescue raid go ahead. We were told to wait until we were cleared. Wishes had talked to the prime minister there and promised him all sorts of aid, weapons, and that did the trick. The Somali agreed to the raid, but like in Dubai, they insist that local soldiers are involved as well. But this time, the full GSG9 contingent of 60 highly trained operatives are allowed into Somalia. GSG9's commander, Urik Vega, goes to work straight away on the revised plan. The plan in Mogadishu was a more elaborate plan that we'd had in Dubai. In Mogadishu, we had full team there and that we opened all doors simultaneously and the wings. So, we had multiple entry points just in case somebody got blocked up. Vega's plan is that his team will approach the aircraft from its blind spot, the rear. They'll position assault ladders against the aircraft's fuselage at six entrance points. Somali troops will set off an explosion 300 m away as a distraction. At the same time, stun grenades will disorientate the enemy long enough to allow Veagan's men in. Once through the doors, the team will systematically move through flight LH181 until it is cleared of the terrorists. It's an ingenious plan, but even so, this mission is full of risk. It is a bad bad target to attack because you can't predict what the terrorists are going to do in such a confined small area with so many so many people on board. An hour before Mahmood's deadline expires, Vega's assault team form up at the end of the runway. Separately, GSG9 snipers have moved into concealed positions around flight LH181. They radio Vagner's team with information about the position of the hijackers within the aircraft. They told us that the blinds were down and co was clear. And in one big line, we walk towards the rear of the aircraft because there's a blind spot on the aircraft. The team have to cross hundreds of meters of runway without being seen or heard. Unfortunately, as we were walking towards the aircraft, the big search lights which light up the old uh airfield throw in shadows at least 30 m long. And if you'd looked out the window, he'd have seen this line of shadows coming towards you. Fortunately for Veagan's men, Vishnki's negotiating team distract the terrorists by keeping them busy close to the radio at the front of the aircraft. We knew exactly where Mmood was. He was in the cockpit. The Somales were talking to MMO and saying, "You've won my brother. I have just had news from Germany. They've released the friends. They are on a plane. They're in the air. In these 20 30 minutes, you can talk to them directly yourself. We have the money here. We can wheel out in front of you. Give you the the 15 million. And you know, please don't kill anybody because you've won. You've won. The assault team makes it to the plane undetected. They gather under the fuselage in their designated squads and ready themselves for the assault. The teams with the ladders put them against the wing and also against the the doors front and rear. The team now scale the wings and get into their final positions. We crouched up right up next to the body where they can't see you. If somebody's looking out the window, if the window is open, I've learned they can't see you because there's that little gap of dead dead ground. Now, you got to be yourself pretty tight in there until you get to go. On Q, the Somali set off a huge explosion as a distraction. It was an almighty bang and I think a whole Bowser worth of petrol went up. It just lit the place up like daylight. Mahmood is stunned in the cockpit, unsure of how to react. It's now or never for the attack. Olri Vagnner was counting. He counted down from 10. And then you hear standby, standby, go. I can tell you now, the adrenaline just jumps up right to [Music] 100%. I threw the first grenade over the cockpit and I threw the second one over right across the cabin and uh there was a mighty flash and bang. At that very second, the assault team tried to force the doors open. These are 32 kg doors. They take a lot of force to open. These blur, the door goes down and straight away they're inside with guns [Music] drawn. When the GS9 went in, they were shouting, "Hinn, hinle, get your head down." Basically, stay down. Stay down. They were able to get the hostages heads down and start attacking the terrorist. Veagan's men come face to face with their first terrorist. She is gunned down, falling to the ground, severely wounded. They have to move fast. The plane is still rigged with explosives. The GSG9 team fight with complete ruthlessness. They have to take out these people and stop them with excessive force. [Music] Another terrorist advances. In his hands are two grenades. These are deadly moments. If the hand grenades go off, the whole aircraft could be wrecked. But GSG9 officers have only one choice. One of the grenades, with its pinpulled, falls from the terrorist's hand. The stewards Gabby Dilman is hit in the foot and another passenger is wounded, but GSG9 have had a lucky escape. It wasn't a very good grenade. I mean, I think they were quite weak. I think most of it absorbed by the seating. GSG9 must take down the two other terrorists before it's too late. As one team moves forward, another tries to get the passengers off the plane as quickly as possible. They were screaming to get the passengers out and they started coming out in their droves. Initially, the people that were coming out the back door, which I could see, they were trying to slide down the the ladder. At the front of the aircraft, GSG9 slowly advance and corner the most dangerous terrorist in the group, Captain Mahmood. Mahmood is in the cockpit area and he's opened fire with a handgun. He staggers back into the cockpit. He's still dangerous. Reaching for a a hand grenade. [Music] Three of the cell are now out of action, but there's still one terrorist missing. There are still explosives on the aircraft. There are still weapons. There's still a dangerous individual. The missing terrorist is a woman, but where is she? Could you be hiding amongst the passengers? Fagen's men have to treat everyone as a potential suspect. On your knees, the GSG9 team have to find her and find her quickly. Inside the plane, the hunt for the missing terrorist continues. They heard the person in there. She's been hiding in the [Music] toilet. The fourth and final terrorist is taken out. The mission is over. Springtime. 7 minutes after bursting into the plane, Vega radios in the code word, springtime. All of the terrorists are either dead or wounded, and the hostages are safely off the [Music] plane. Operation Fire Magic has been a complete success. Everybody was really elated. We were all patting ourselves on the back and uh saying how good we were and uh we were really pleased. [Music] Vishnvki can breathe a sigh of relief. The politicians tireless negotiations have played a crucial part in the mission's success. As the hostages have their first taste of freedom for 6 days, the one surviving terrorist Sua Sier is stretched off the plane defiant to the end. The moment they got Sua out, which they thought was dead, she was very much alive and they put her on a stretcher and she put her hands up in the air and two fingers and shouted, "Free Palestine. [Music] Later that morning, the team whose bravery and expertise had bought 86 hostages their freedom flies back to Germany. And uh I didn't realize Lufans had carried so much alcohol. And we made really good friends with the gesture line on that on that uh on that time coming back. Veaganner and his team land in Germany to a hero's [Music] [Music] welcome. Operation Fire Magic is a massive blow against the morale of the PFLP and its terrorist allies. The mission in Mogadishu sent a message out to the terrorist world that they no longer held all the cards. The German authorities could say now that we are in control and that we can get back at terrorists if they try to strike at us. When the news of GSG9's success broke, three of the 11 Baminhoff prisoners that Mahmood had demanded be released commit suicide in prison. In the following years, special forces teams around the world study Operation Fire Magic as the textbook hostage rescue from a hijacked plane. The GSG9 mission would rank right up there with one of the most successful special operations missions in history because of everything kind of working together. the political side, the intelligence gathering side, negotiators, and the special operations drill that went pretty much flawless. The operation in Mogadishu put GSG9 on the map and gave them a deserved reputation for tactical excellence and for efficiency and they built on that reputation ever since. Heat. Heat. [Music]