Air France Flight 8969

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Air France Flight 8969 (Operation Rock Climber) was an Air France Airbus A300 flight that was hijacked on 24 December 1994 at Houari Boumediene Airport, Algiers. The militants murdered three passengers and their intention was either to detonate the aircraft over the Eiffel Tower or the Tour Montparnasse in Paris. When the aircraft reached Marseille, the GIGN, a counterterrorism and hostage rescue unit of the French National Gendarmerie, stormed the plane and killed all four hijackers. The incident led to Air France halting their flights to Algeria until 2004, two years after the end of the Algerian Civil War.

Read on Wikipedia · Image Werner Fischdick, GFDL 1.2