Lufthansa plane hijacked 40 years ago returns to Germany in pieces

GERMANY:  The Landshut, a Lufthansa airlines jet that was hijacked and the scene of a dramatic hostage rescue nearly 40 years ago, was returned to Germany on Saturday.

The majority of the aircraft was brought from an aeroplane graveyard in Brazil in pieces by an Antonov 124 cargo plane to the southern German city of Friedrichshafen.

The remaining pieces are to arrive on Wednesday and the entire craft will be reassembled by the Dornier Museum, where it will ultimately join the aircraft museum's permanent exhibition.

The Landshut was hijacked by four Palestinian extremists allied with the German terrorist organization Red Army Faction (RAF) in October 1977.

The drama ended five days after the hijacking on October 18, 1977 in the Somali capital Mogadishu when German special forces stormed the aircraft and rescued all 86 passengers. Pilot Juergen Schumann was killed earlier by one of the terrorists.