Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, December 28, 1994 TAG: 9412280086
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: PARIS LENGTH: Medium
The plane would have been a flying bomb, bursting into a huge fireball over Paris, the flaming debris turning the streets below into an inferno.
Euphoria over the successful end to the Air France hijacking gave way Tuesday to the chilling realization that the Islamic radicals who seized the plane in Algeria were discussing such a catastrophic climax.
The gunmen seized the Paris-bound jet at the Algiers airport on Saturday, demanding the release of fundamentalist leaders who have been jailed in the insurgency against the Algerian government. They killed three passengers and freed 63, then ordered the plane flown to Marseille early Monday. There they let two more passengers go.
French commandos retook the plane in Marseille on Monday in a daring dusk raid that killed the four hijackers and saved the lives of all 171 hostages aboard.
Interior Minister Charles Pasqua said authorities were afraid the hijackers had planned a ``suicide operation over Paris.''
Explosives discovered on the Airbus A300 jetliner ``would have blown the plane to bits in midflight,'' Pasqua said at a news conference.
Former hostages said the hijackers had asked to load the plane with 27 tons of kerosene, nearly three times what is required to fly to Paris, to make the blast more spectacular.
``Their idea was to set Paris ablaze,'' said former hostage Ferhat Mehenni, a well-known singer in Algeria.
About 20 sticks of dynamite connected to detonators were found under a seat just behind the cockpit and under another seat in the wide-body jet's midsection.
Pasqua said an anonymous tip to the French Consulate in the northwest Algerian city of Oran had alerted authorities to the intentions of the hijackers.
In Marseille, the hijackers had set a 5 p.m. deadline for being allowed to fly to Paris, where they demanded to hold a news conference. French authorities were determined to keep the plane on the ground at all costs.
``We even offered to take television crews on board the plane so they could make their declarations,'' Pasqua said.
An unidentified passenger told the TV network TF-1 that the hijackers wanted to blow up the plane over Orly Airport on the outskirts of the city or over Paris itself.
The commandos became national heroes, arriving with some of the former hostages at Paris' Orly airport to a tumultuous welcome. President Francois Mitterrand expressed ``the nation's gratitude'' at a reception for them at the Champs Elysees.
by CNB