leaders, he was nicknamed "Ben Wisch" by the German press. He lost his position after the CDU regained power in 1982, becoming a travelling consultant to Arab, African, and South American countries, advising them on negotiating techniques and pacification policies to deal with terrorist and insurgent groups. He died in 2005. Chancellor Helmut Schmidt (59) German Federal Chancellor (Bundeskanzler ) between 1974 and 1982 who adopted a tough, uncompromising stance on the Hanns Martin Schleyer kidnapping and Lufthansa 181 hijacking in 1977. He authorised the GSG 9 mission to rescue the Landshut hostages and his anti-terrorist policies were successful in overcoming the long-standing threat posed by the Red Army Faction. After retiring from the Bundestag in 1986, he helped found the committee supporting the EMU and creation of the European Central Bank. He died in 2015. Hijacking At 11:00 on Thursday 13 October 1977, Lufthansa flight LH 181, a Boeing 737 named Landshut, took off from Palma de Mallorca en route to Frankfurt with 86 passengers and five crew, piloted by Captain Jürgen Schumann, with co-pilot Jürgen Vietor at the controls. About 30 minutes later, as it was overflying Marseille, the aircraft was hijacked by four militants calling themselves "Commando Martyr Halima" in honour of fellow militant Brigitte Kuhlmann, who had been killed in Operation Entebbe the previous year. The leader of the hijacker group was Palestinian terrorist Zohair Youssif Akache (23, male), who adopted the alias "Captain Martyr Mahmud". The other three were Suhaila Sayeh (24, female), a Palestinian, and two Lebanese people, Wabil Harb (23, male) and Hind Alameh (22, female). Akache ("Mahmud") angrily burst into the cockpit, brandishing a fully loaded pistol in his hand. He forcibly removed Vietor from the cockpit, sending him to the economy class area to join the passengers and flight attendants, leaving Schumann to take over the flight controls. As the other three hijackers knocked over food trays, ordering the hostages to put their hands up, Mahmud coerced Captain Schumann to fly east to Larnaca in Cyprus, but was told that the plane had insufficient fuel and would have to land in Rome first. Rome The hijacked aircraft changed course at around 14:30 (as noticed by air traffic controllers at Aix-en-Provence), diverting eastward and landed at Fiumicino Airport in Fiumicino, Rome at 15:45 for refuelling. The hijackers made their first demands, acting in concert with a Red Army Faction group, the Siegfried