Garuda Indonesia Flight 206

Garuda Indonesia Flight 206

Hijacking summary
Date	28 March 1981
Summary	Hijacking
Site	Indonesian airspace
Passengers	57
Injuries (non-fatal)	2
Fatalities	6 (4 hijackers, 1 commando, and the pilot)
Survivors	57
Aircraft type	McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32
Aircraft name	"Woyla"
Operator	Garuda Indonesia
Registration	PK-GNJ
Flight origin	Talang Betutu Airport, Palembang Indonesia
Destination	Polonia Airport, Medan Indonesia

Garuda Indonesia Flight 206 was a domestic Garuda Indonesia flight from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, Jakarta to Polonia International Airport, Medan (with a stopover at Talang Betutu Airport, Palembang,) that was hijacked on 28 March 1981.

The incident

The hijackers, an Islamist extremist group called Komando Jihad, hijacked the DC-9 named "Woyla" en route from Palembang to Medan, ordering the pilot to fly them to Colombo, Sri Lanka. Since the plane did not have enough fuel to reach Colombo, it refueled in Penang, Malaysia, then flew instead to Don Mueang Airport in Bangkok, Thailand. The hijackers demanded the release of 80 Kommando Jihad members imprisoned in Indonesia, US$1.5 million in cash, and a plane to take the released prisoners to an unspecified destination. On 29 March 1981, a group of Indonesian Army Kopassandha (now Kopassus) commandos led by Lieutenant Colonel Sintong Panjaitan and Lieutenant General Leonardus Benjamin Moerdani were flown into Bangkok with a chartered Garuda DC-10 which was disguised as a Garuda flight from Europe, due to speculation that the hijackers intended to flew the plane into Libya. The team stormed the plane two days later. The recapture of the plane was a joint operation between the Royal Thai Air Force commandos and Indonesia's Kopassandha commandos. The Kopassus commandos who took part in the rescue trained for only three days with new weapons. One of the Kopassus commandos was shot, probably by his comrades, as was the pilot, also probably by Kopassus commandos. The rest of the hostages were released unharmed. Two of the hijackers surrendered to the Thai commandos, but they were killed by the Kopassus commandos on the plane taking them back to Jakarta.

The rest of the crew members and all passengers survived. The terrorist leader, Imran bin Muhammad Zein, was tried after arrival and was sentenced to death by the Central Jakarta Regional Court a few weeks later.

See also

• Air France Flight 8969
• Singapore Airlines Flight 117

External links

• Komchad Luek Newspaper |International terrorism that has occurred in Thailand. (Thai version)