Lufthansa Flight 615

The hijacking of Lufthansa Flight 615 occurred on 29 October 1972 and was aimed at the release of the three surviving perpetrators of the Munich massacre from a West German prison. When the Lufthansa airplane was seized by sympathisers of the Black September Organization during the Beirut-Ankara part of a multi-stopover flight from Damascus to Frankfurt, the West German authorities complied with the demand of having the prisoners released. They were handed over at Zagreb Airport, and the hijacked aircraft was flown to Tripoli, where all hostages were released. The liberated Munich attackers were granted asylum by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. For its actions, the West German government was criticised by Israel and other parties. Allegations were made that the hijacking had been staged or at least tolerated with theories of a secret agreement between the German government and Black September – release of the surviving militants in exchange for assurances of no further attacks on Germany.