Japan Airlines Flight 472

Japan Airlines Flight 472 was an aircraft hijacking carried out by the Japanese Red Army (JRA) on September 28, 1977.

Incident

The Douglas DC-8, en route from Paris to Haneda Airport in Tokyo with 156 people on board, stopped in Mumbai, India. Shortly after taking off from Mumbai, five armed JRA members, led by Osamu Maruoka, hijacked the aircraft and ordered it flown to Dhaka, Bangladesh. At Dhaka, the hijackers took the passengers and crew hostage, demanding $6 million and the release of 9 imprisoned JRA members.

On October 1, Prime Minister Takeo Fukuda announced that the Japanese government would accept the hijackers' demands, on the principle that "human life outweighs the earth." Six of the imprisoned JRA members were then released.

A chartered Japan Airlines (JAL) flight carried the money and the six released JRA members to Dhaka, where the exchange took place on October 2. The hijackers released 118 passengers and crew members. On October 3, they flew to Kuwait City and Damascus, where they released 11 more hostages. Finally, the aircraft was flown to Algeria, where it was impounded by authorities and the remaining hostages were freed.

Aftermath

One of the hostages freed in Algeria said that the Japanese government's handling of the situation was "the right thing to do in order to secure the release of innocent victims of...
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