The
Rome and Vienna airport attacks were two major
terrorist attacksTerrorism is the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion.At present, there is no internationally agreed definition of terrorism...
carried out on December 27, 1985.
On that day at 08:15 GMT, four gunmen walked to the ticket counter of
IsraelIsrael officially the State of Israel , is a developed state in Western Asia located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its...
's
El AlEl Al is the national airline of Israel. It operates regular international passenger and cargo flights between its hub at Ben Gurion International Airport and destinations in Africa, Asia, Europe, South America, and North America, as well as domestic connections to Eilat.Since its inaugural...
Airlines and
Trans World AirlinesFor the Jordanian cargo airline, see Transworld Aviation.Trans World Airlines renamed TWA Airlines LLC in 2001 was a major United States-based airline with hubs in St. Louis, New York , with focus cities in Kansas City, Missouri; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Los Angeles, California. The airline...
at Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport near
RomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated municipality , with over 2.7 million residents in , while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat to be 3.46 million. The metropolitan area of Rome is estimated by OECD to have a population of 3.7 million...
,
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
, and opened fire with
assault rifleAn assault rifle is a rifle designed for combat, with selective fire . Assault rifles are the standard infantry weapons in most modern armies, having largely superseded or supplemented larger and more powerful battle rifles such as the M14, FN FAL and the Heckler & Koch G3...
s and grenades. They killed 16 people and wounded 99 others before three of them were killed. The remaining one was shot and captured by police.
Minutes later, at the Schwechat Airport (
Vienna International AirportVienna International Airport , located in Schwechat and southeast of central Vienna, is the busiest and biggest airport in Austria. It is often referred to as Schwechat, the name of the nearby town. The airport is capable of handling wide-body aircraft such as the Boeing 747 and Airbus A340...
) in
ViennaVienna is the capital of the Republic of Austria and also one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.7 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 10th largest city by...
,
AustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.3 million people in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west...
, three terrorists carried out a similar attack.
The
Rome and Vienna airport attacks were two major
terrorist attacksTerrorism is the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion.At present, there is no internationally agreed definition of terrorism...
carried out on December 27, 1985.
On that day at 08:15 GMT, four gunmen walked to the ticket counter of
IsraelIsrael officially the State of Israel , is a developed state in Western Asia located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its...
's
El AlEl Al is the national airline of Israel. It operates regular international passenger and cargo flights between its hub at Ben Gurion International Airport and destinations in Africa, Asia, Europe, South America, and North America, as well as domestic connections to Eilat.Since its inaugural...
Airlines and
Trans World AirlinesFor the Jordanian cargo airline, see Transworld Aviation.Trans World Airlines renamed TWA Airlines LLC in 2001 was a major United States-based airline with hubs in St. Louis, New York , with focus cities in Kansas City, Missouri; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Los Angeles, California. The airline...
at Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport near
RomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated municipality , with over 2.7 million residents in , while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat to be 3.46 million. The metropolitan area of Rome is estimated by OECD to have a population of 3.7 million...
,
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
, and opened fire with
assault rifleAn assault rifle is a rifle designed for combat, with selective fire . Assault rifles are the standard infantry weapons in most modern armies, having largely superseded or supplemented larger and more powerful battle rifles such as the M14, FN FAL and the Heckler & Koch G3...
s and grenades. They killed 16 people and wounded 99 others before three of them were killed. The remaining one was shot and captured by police.
Minutes later, at the Schwechat Airport (
Vienna International AirportVienna International Airport , located in Schwechat and southeast of central Vienna, is the busiest and biggest airport in Austria. It is often referred to as Schwechat, the name of the nearby town. The airport is capable of handling wide-body aircraft such as the Boeing 747 and Airbus A340...
) in
ViennaVienna is the capital of the Republic of Austria and also one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.7 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 10th largest city by...
,
AustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.3 million people in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west...
, three terrorists carried out a similar attack. Hand grenades were thrown towards crowds of passengers queuing to check-in for a flight to
Tel AvivTel Aviv-Yafo , usually called Tel Aviv, is the second largest city in Israel, with an estimated population of 391,300. The city is situated on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline, with a land area of...
. The terrorists killed two people and wounded 39 others. A third victim died on January 22, 1986, of hand grenade wounds sustained in the attack. The terrorists then fled the airport by car, and Austrian police gave chase. They killed one terrorist and captured the other two.
In all, the attacks killed 19, including a child, and wounded around 140. Some reports said that the original plan of the gunmen was to hijack El Al jets from the airports and blow them up over
Tel AvivTel Aviv-Yafo , usually called Tel Aviv, is the second largest city in Israel, with an estimated population of 391,300. The city is situated on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline, with a land area of...
; others said that firing at the ticket counters was the plan and that
FrankfurtFrankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2008 population of 670,000. The urban area had an estimated population of 2.26 million in 2001...
's airport was to be hit as well.
The attacks were first blamed on
Palestine Liberation OrganizationThe Palestine Liberation Organization is a political and paramilitary organization founded in 1964. It is recognized as the "sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people," by over 100 states with which it holds diplomatic relations, and has enjoyed observer status at the United...
, but its leader,
Yasser ArafatMohammed Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini , popularly known as Yasser Arafat or by his kunya Abu Ammar , was a Palestinian leader. He was Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization , President of the Palestinian National Authority, and leader of the Fatah political...
, denied the accusations and denounced the attacks. In fact, the PLO believed that the object of the attacks was to force Austria and Italy to sever ties with the Palestinians.Responsibility for the terrorist attack was later claimed by the
Abu NidalAbu Nidal , born Sabri Khalil al-Banna , was the founder of Fatah–The Revolutionary Council , a militant Palestinian group more commonly known as the Abu Nidal Organization...
Organization (ANO) who claimed it was in retaliation for
Operation Wooden LegOperation Wooden Leg was the Israeli codename for an Israeli Air Force raid on the Palestine Liberation Organization headquarters in Hammam al-Shatt, Tunisia, 12 miles from the capital of Tunis. It took place on October 1, 1985....
, the Israeli bombing of PLO headquarters in
TunisTunis is the capital of the Tunisian Republic and also the Tunis Governorate, with a population of 1,200,000 in 2008 and over 3,980,500 in the greater Tunis area...
on October 1.
LibyaLibya , officially the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya , is a country located in North Africa...
was accused of funding the terrorists who carried out the attacks, but although they denied the charges they did praise the assaults. Sources close to Abu Nidal said that
LibyaLibya , officially the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya , is a country located in North Africa...
n intelligence had supplied the weapons; the man who organized the attacks was the ANO's head of the Intelligence Directorate's Committee for Special Missions, Dr. Ghassan al-Ali. Libya denied these charges, though it hailed the attacks as "heroic operations carried out by the sons of the martyrs of Sabra and Shatila."
The attack was similar to the
2002 Los Angeles Airport shootingThe 2002 Los Angeles Airport shooting was an terrorist attack by a lone gunman on an airline ticket counter at Los Angeles International Airport....
.
External links