Air France Flight 8969

Coordinates: 43°26'23"N 5°12'54"E


F-GBEC, the aircraft involved in the hijacking

Hijacking
Date: 24–26 December 1994 (2 days)
Summary: Hijacking by Armed Islamic Group of Algeria
Sites:
24–25 December: Houari Boumediene Airport, Algiers, Algeria
26 December: Marseille Provence Airport, Marseille, France; 43°26'23"N 5°12'54"E

Aircraft
Aircraft type: Airbus A300B2-1C
Operator: Air France
IATA flight No.: AF8969
ICAO flight No.: AFR8969
Call sign: AIR FRANS 8969
Registration: F-GBEC
Flight origin: Houari Boumedienne Airport
Destination: Paris–Orly Airport
Occupants: 236 (including 4 hijackers)
Passengers: 224 (including 4 hijackers)
Crew: 12
Fatalities 7 (3 passengers, all 4 hijackers)
Injuries: 25 (13 passengers, 3 crew, 9 GIGN)
Survivors: 229

Air France Flight 8969 was an Air France flight that was hijacked on 24 December 1994 by the Armed Islamic Group of Algeria (GIA) at Houari Boumediene Airport, Algiers. The terrorists murdered three passengers and their intention was either to detonate the aircraft over the Eiffel Tower or the Tour Montparnasse in Paris. When the aircraft reached Marseille, the National Gendarmerie Intervention Group (GIGN), a tier one counterterrorism and hostage rescue unit of the French National Gendarmerie, stormed the plane and killed all four hijackers.

The incident led to Air France halting their flights to Algeria until 2004, two years after the end of the Algerian Civil War.

Background

Algeria was in a state of civil war at the time of the hijacking. Aircraft flying to Algeria faced the possibility of missile attacks. As a result, Air France's flights to Algeria had crews composed entirely of people who volunteered for the route. Air France had asked government officials if it absolutely had to continue flying to Algeria; by the time of the hijacking, it had not received a reply.[citation needed]

Crew
Bernard Dhelemme, aged 51, was the captain of the flight. Jean-Paul Borderie was the copilot, and Alain Bossuat was the flight engineer.

Aircraft
The aircraft involved was an Airbus A300B2-1C, registered as F-GBEC with MSN 104 and was equipped with two General Electric CF6-50C2R engines.

Hijacking

24 December

On 24 December 1994, at Houari Boumedienne Airport in Algiers, four armed men boarded Air France Flight 8969 which was due to depart for Orly Airport, Paris at 11:15 a.m. The men were dressed as Algerian presidential police; they wore blue uniforms with Air Algérie logos. Their presence originally did not cause any alarm. Two of the men began inspecting the passengers' passports while one went into the cockpit and the fourth stood guard. Claude Burgniard, a veteran flight attendant, recalled noticing that the "police" were armed and one of them had dynamite showing, which she considered to be unusual as the Algerian police were not normally armed when carrying out checks. The Algerian military felt suspicious on noticing that the Air France flight appeared to have an unauthorised delay, so they began surrounding the aircraft. Zahida Kakachi, a passenger, recalled seeing members of the Special Intervention Group (GIS), known as "ninjas", outside the aircraft. Kakachi recalled hearing one of the "police" say "Tāghūt {Arabic: طَاغُوت}," an Arabic word for "tyrant", upon seeing the GIS men gathering outside the A300; she then realised that the four men on board the plane were terrorists. The four hijackers then revealed that they were not police, but mujahideen seeking to establish an Islamic state in Algeria. They had hijacked the aircraft because the national airline Air France was a symbol of France, which they viewed as infidel foreign invaders.

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