Best known Airliner in German History returns Home

Can an ordinary airliner become part of a country's national history? For Germans, the answer clearly is "Yes", as a Boeing 737 named "Landshut" after the German city of this name, made the headlines in one of the most influential periods in German post-war history and does again now.

In autumn 1977, Germany experienced a time, so important in the country's post-war history, that it has been given its own name, the "German Autumn"! At the time, Western Germany lived in fear of terrorist attacks, as well as kidnappings and killings of high-ranking business leaders, comitted by the second generation of a left-wing terror organisation, called RAF ("Rote Armee Fraktion", or in English: "Red Army Faction"). One of their goals was obtaining the release of imprisoned members of their organisation's first generation, in which context the "Landshut", a Lufthansa Boeing 737-200, was hijacked by members of the "Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine" (PFLP).

But the hijacking of the "Landshut" isn't only remembered for terror and the killing of flight captain Jürgen Schumann, but also for the rescue mission, which was the first high-profile operation of GSG 9, the elite Police Tactical Unit of the German Federal Police. This unit had been founded only 5 years earlier in the aftermath of the "Munich massacre" and proved its skills by freeing all 86 passengers of the hijacked plane, while killing 3 terrorists and without losing any of their own men.

Now, as interesting as all this may be to people who are interested in German history, why are we reporting on that? Because the "Landshut" has returned home now! Since the plane had been sold by Lufthansa in 1985, it flew for different operators and was eventually converted into a freighter. In 2008 it was stored at Fortaleza airport (SBFZ/FOR) and was due to be scrapped. But, because of its historical value, it was bought by the German foreign ministry (reportedly for about 20,000 Euros) and has now been transported to Friedrichshafen. Before it can be exhibited there, the famous plane needs some care of course and they say, it will be restored to the condition it was in, back in 1977, when an ordinary airliner became part of German history.