Members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine hijacked El Al Flight 426 en route from Rome to Tel Aviv, diverting it to Algeria. The 32-hour standoff ended with passengers released unharmed, but the incident marked a turning point: the first hijacking targeting an Israeli carrier and an early demonstration of hijacking as a tool of political leverage that would define the following decade.
The hijackers, led by the PFLP, forced the Boeing 707 to land in Algiers, where Algerian authorities held the aircraft and its Israeli passengers and crew for over five weeks in a tense diplomatic standoff, even though most passengers were freed within days. Algeria's government, sympathetic to Palestinian causes, refused to simply hand the plane back, creating friction with Israel and international aviation bodies.
The episode is often cited as the opening act of the international hijacking wave of the late 1960s and 1970s, in which airplanes became stages for political statements broadcast to a global audience. It also pushed El Al toward becoming one of the most heavily fortified airlines in the world, pioneering armed sky marshals, reinforced cockpit doors, and rigorous passenger profiling that other carriers would eventually adopt.