Due to ship hijackings being relatively unheard of at the time , the cruise line did little else for security besides checking passports at Genoa . No one 's luggage was checked , and this was seen as normal procedure at the time . ( It was reported by the '' New York Times '' at the time of the hijacking that the ship had security personnel but it could not determine if they were armed . ) This lax security occurred in the same year that a spate of terrorist incidents within Europe and the Middle East had already occurred , including the hijacking of TWA Flight 847 where hostages were taken and one slain along the way . The TWA incident had even impacted the Mediterranean cruise business with three Greek ships of the Epirotiki Line – the Jupiter , the Jason , and the Neptune – taken out of service due to slack demand resulting from increased terrorism fears
TWA Flight 847
TWA Flight 847
Achille Lauro hijacking