A hijacker who became known as D.B. Cooper parachutes from
a Northwest Orient Airlines 727 into a raging thunderstorm over Washington State. He had $200,000 in ransom money in his
possession.

Cooper commandeered the aircraft shortly after takeoff, showing
a flight attendant what looked like a bomb and informing the crew
that he wanted $200,000, four parachutes, and “no funny stuff.”

The plane landed at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, where authorities met Cooper’s demands and evacuated most of the passengers. Cooper then demanded that the plane fly toward
Mexico at a low altitude and ordered the remaining crew into
the cockpit.

At 8:13 p.m., as the plane flew over the Lewis River in southwest Washington, the plane’s pressure gauge recorded Cooper’s jump
from the aircraft.

A storm prevented an immediate capture, and most authorities
assumed he was killed during his apparently suicidal jump. No
trace of Cooper was found during a massive search.

TIM MAGUIRE

On May 27, 1995, Reeve broke his neck when he was thrown
from a horse during an equestrian competition in Culpeper,
Virginia. The injury paralyzed him from the shoulders down,
and he used a wheelchair and ventilator for the rest of his life.

United Airlines Flight 93 was a domestic scheduled passenger
flight that was hijacked by four al-Qaeda terrorists on the
morning of September 11, 2001, as part of the September
11 attacks.

They failed in their primary mission when the passengers
fought back, forcing the terrorists to crash the plane in
Somerset County, Pennsylvania.

Boeing 757-222

On October 10, 1985, the hijacking of the Italian cruise ship Achille
Lauro reached a dramatic climax when U.S. Navy F-14 fighters intercepted an Egyptian airliner attempting to fly the Palestinian
hijackers to freedom and force the jet to land at a NATO base in Sigonella, Sicily. American and Italian troops surrounded the plane,
and the terrorists were taken into Italian custody.

On October 7, four heavily armed Palestinian terrorists hijacked
the Achille Lauro in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of
Alexandria, Egypt. Some 320 crewmembers and 80 passengers,
including 11 Americans, were taken hostage. 

Identifying themselves as members of the Palestine Liberation
Front, a Palestinian splinter group–the gunmen demanded the
release of 50 Palestinian militants imprisoned in Israel. If their
demands were not met, they threatened to blow up the ship and
kill all the Americans and British passengers on board.

The Achille Lauro cruise ship leaves Egypt’s Port Said harbor after being released from terrorist hijackers.

   
JOHN BELMONT

John Winston Lennon
(9 October 1940 – 8 December 1980)

Lennon was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace
activist who achieved worldwide fame as the founder, co-
songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the
Beatles. His songwriting partnership with Paul McCartney
remains the most successful in history,