LOT 165 landed at Tempelhof Airport in West Berlin at the time of the incident
Building the Berlin Wall
everything is
forbidden love
began with
1976 when Germany was divided into West and East Germany
Ingrid Ruske, who lived in East Berlin at the time, was a divorced woman with a young daughter named Xavine
After the divorce, while living alone with Xavine in East Berlin and working at a bar, she happened to meet a man named Horst Fisher who lived in Hamburg
They fell in love with each other like fate, and Horst often stopped by East Berlin and met Ingrid
But their love could not come true
At that time, there were exchanges between East and West Germany, and it was possible to go back and forth
It was very difficult for East and West Germans to get married
Horst, who lived in West Germany, could not come and live in East Germany because of love, and on the contrary, there was no way for Ingrid to live in West Germany normally
Eventually, Ingrid, who was agonizing over this, consulted Hans Detref, a waiter at the bar where he worked, about this concern
Detref also had a son in West Berlin, so I sympathized with Ingrid’s situation, and eventually Detref made a decision
Let’s escape East Germany!
Ingrid first considered it, but eventually decided to seek asylum, and Horst joined forces to help them succeed in their asylum
They planned for asylum, and the plan was as follows
Horst creates Ingrid Javine Detrev’s forged West German passport in West Germany, and Ingrid Javine Detrev goes to Poland, meets Horst, receives the forged passport, and then stow away on a cargo ship and escapes to West Germany
And on August 26, 1978, the three headed to Poland
I met Horst at the train station and tried to get a fake passport, but there was a problem
Horst was arrested by East Germany on suspicion of suspiciousness, and the search revealed the forged passports of the three men
Detrev judged that Horst was arrested by East Germany and even caught in a forged passport
That means they’ve already been caught in East Germany
When they returned to East Germany, it meant that the three were dead
Detref, who was struggling, happened to see the toy pistol that Xavine was playing with, and he used a toy pistol that looked like a real thing
I decided to do something crazy
Let’s hijack the plane and go to West Germany!
Ingrid Ruske’s picture on the left
Highjacking
On 30 August 1978, Detrev and Ingrid Javine boarded a Tu-134 flight of LOT Polish Airlines flight 165 at Gdansk Airport in Poland
Flight LOT 165 was scheduled to leave Gdansk and fly about 500 kilometers to land at Berlin’s Sönefeld airport in East Berlin at around 8:50 a.m
Detrev ordered a series of cognacs from the stewardess, some to relax about the hijacking of the aircraft, but with a stronger purpose to monitor the crew’s movements
After ordering Cognac three times, Detref took Xavine’s toy pistol and threatened the stewardess to head to the control room, aiming for the stewardess to be alone
And he threatened the captain and the bookkeeper with a toy pistol to stop them from landing at Sönefeld Airport and ordered them to head to Berlin Tempelhof Airport in West Berlin
Inevitably, the captain left Sönefeld Airport and headed for West Berlin
The plane that was due to land didn’t land, but headed towards West Berlin
East Germany immediately launched two warplanes
LOT 165 was ordered to return, but the captain continued to head towards West Berlin at Detrep’s threat
East Germany is trying to tell its fighters
It goes as far as to order LOT 165 to be shot down
The missile was about to go off
All of a sudden, the fighters broke away near LOT 165
This is what happened
exercised by the captain
a base
It was all thanks to you
The captain was embarrassed when Detrep hijacked the plane, but he did something
It was to manipulate the frequency
The reason why this behavior was important was that we manipulated the frequency to ensure that all communications were spread
East Berlin and West Berlin were close
This meant that the U.S. and West Germany also knew by wiretapping that the aircraft had been hijacked by refugees and that East Germany was trying to shoot it down
At that time, East Germany secretly shot down the plane and tried to manipulate it as an air accident, but the U.S. and West Germany found out that the aircraft was hijacked and shot it down
Worried about the devastating aftermath, he canceled the plane’s shooting down order and ordered it back
LOT 165 is over the edge of the crisis and headed for Tempelhoff Airport in West Berlin
The last difficulty was left
Berlin Tempelhof Airport
At 9:40 a.m., LOT Flight 165 reached over Tempelhof Airport in West Berlin
The captain asked for permission to land
The controller continued to say no to landing
The reason for this is that at that time, West Germany already knew that the plane was hijacked and knew exactly that the purpose was to seek asylum
So he was concerned that if he accepted this, he might end his exchanges with East Germany, and that’s why he asked LOT 165 to return to East Berlin
LOT flight 165 is running out of fuel
It was falling apart, so there was no way but to return to East Germany to avoid accidents
But Detrep, whose kidnapping was effectively the last gamble at the time, refused to return to East Berlin
Detrep shouted with his toy pistol that he could never return
By him, the captain could do nothing but bang around over Tempelhoff Airport
But at around 10 a.m., I heard a news on Flight 165 that was circling the sky
It’s the one that authorized the landing at Tempelhoff Airport in West Berlin
It was a twist in just 20 minutes
This is what happened
It was because of the U.S. decision
Tempelhoff Airport was under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Forces in Germany, so it had a greater influence on the United States than West Germany did on the landing
The U.S., which knew the reason for the incident that the defector tried to flee the country by kidnapping the aircraft, decided that it could be used politically and allowed the plane to land
It would have been nice to land like this, but there was one last hurdle left
Since LOT 165 was a large aircraft, the length of the runway required for landing had to be at least 2100 meters
But the maximum length of the runway at Tempelhof Airport was only 1,700 meters
Therefore, if we landed forcibly, we could have had a major disaster, let alone asylum
The captain told Detref that he had no choice but to return because the runway was short
Detrep, talking about his son in West Berlin, begged the captain with tears
In the end, the captain
come to the decision to land
The first landing attempt failed to secure sufficient distance, forcing Flight 165 to climb again and attempt to land again
And finally, the second attempt at landing
At this time, it failed to secure sufficient distance, but the captain pushed ahead with the landing when he had no choice, and it was a very reckless and dangerous attempt
We’ve landed!
Only 12m
Leaving behind, LOT 165 managed to land at Tempelhof Airport without incident
LOT 165 on the day of the incident
Detref appears in court on 1 May 1979
Detrep and Ingrid Javine were able to set foot at Tempelhof Airport
But passengers later discovered that the plane was hijacked for asylum
Six of the passengers sought asylum, and these six were also taken off the plane
Even though it was for asylum
The hijacking of the plane
Crime
As such, Detrev and Ingrid were brought to the U.S. military court at Tempelhof Airport on charges of hijacking aircraft
Ingrid was involved in the hijacking, but he didn’t do any harm to the passengers
He was found not guilty
Detref was a toy pistol, but somehow he used his power to blackmail the crew and hijack the aircraft
He was sentenced to nine months in prison
It was the result of normal participation, considering the purpose of asylum
On October 5, 1979, Ingrid was found not guilty and rejoiced with his lawyer
Horst, who was discovered by the East German side while helping them escape, had to live in East Germany’s Stasi prison without a promise
East Germany was conscious of international public opinion and had no choice but to leave LOT 165 alone, but Horst did not release the recruits because of the additional charges of foul play
Ingrid pleaded with the U.S. government to negotiate for Horst’s release, but the U.S. did not have a way to get Horst out of it
Ingrid then filed a lawsuit demanding a large amount of compensation from the U.S. government for violating human rights because there was no lawyer’s help during the trial
This was not for compensation, but for the purpose of moving the U.S. government to free Horst, and eventually the U.S. government promised Ingrid to negotiate with East Germany to free Horst if he dropped the lawsuit, and Ingrid dropped the case
Eventually, Horst was released in October 1980, more than two years later, and was able to return to West Germany and reunite with his beloved Ingrid
Horst and Ingrid then finally married in 1985
Four years after their marriage, in 1989, the Berlin Wall collapsed and Germany was unified
Horst died in 2006 and Ingrid and Detrep are said to be each living a peaceful rest of their lives in Berlin
Konstantz Schroeder, who was hoping for asylum among the passengers at the time of the incident
Ingrid Ruske’s 2010 appearance was after her husband died
Case name
hijacking of LOT flight 165
Date of occurrence August 30, 1978
Type hijacking
Departure point Poland Gdansk Airport
Destination Berlin Sönefeld Airport
62 passengers, 7 crew members
All 69 survivors