25th November 1973 - A Dutch KLM Boeing 747 on the way from Amsterdam to Tokyo with 247 passengers onboard is hijacked by 3 young Arabs. They land in Malta where most of the passengers and crew are released after negotiations with Maltese Prime Minister Dom Mintoff. With 11 passengers onboard the jumbo jet leaves Malta to Dubai where the tragedy ends without anyone being killed.

-----     -----     -----     -----     -----

Two crew members of an airliner hijacked to Malta in 1973, when a tragedy was averted, many claim, thanks to the intervention of then Prime Minister Dom Mintoff, have broken their 29-year silence to speak about the case on Dutch television.

The chilling drama could have had disastrous repercussions after three young Arab hijackers threatened to crashland a KLM jumbo jet with 247 passengers on board straight into the heart of Amsterdam.

The TV programme "Other times" was screened on Dutch station Netherland 3 and carried interviews with a former airline captain and a former stewardess.

The KLM Boeing 747, the "Mississippi", was on a scheduled flight from Amsterdam to Tokyo when it was hijacked over the airspace covered by Baghdad on Sunday, November 25, 1973, during the oil crisis.

It was the beginning of a nightmare criss-cross flight above the Middle East because no country would grant landing permission.

The hijackers had chosen a KLM aircraft mainly because of the Netherlands' tolerant attitude towards Israel.

Because no country would grant them landing permission, the hijackers threatened to blow up the plane.

"That the (Dutch) capital escaped from this disaster was only thanks to the fact that the Arabs finally gained landing permission on the island of Malta," the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf reported in a preview to the programme.

At the time, the authorities had heaped praise on the plane's captain as the Luqa runway was considered too short to take the huge B747 jet.

The passengers, mostly Japanese, were eventually allowed to leave the aircraft after negotiations with Mr Mintoff - the hijackers had been convinced that the plane could not possibly take off with both the passengers and the 27,000 gallons of fuel they had demanded.

Mr Mintoff repeatedly asked for the release of the eight stewardesses but the request was as steadfastly turned down by the hijackers. Finally, they agreed to release the girls as a sign of gratitude for the help given to them by the prime minister.

The drama eventually came to a close when the jet flew to Dubai, with just 11 passengers on board, after it was once again turned away by other airports.

The hijackers handed over the plane and the remaining few passengers in return for their safe conduct out of the country.

There were no casualties in the drama.