The Tiflisser plane hi-jacking was an act of the Luftpiraterie on 18 November 1983. Eight young Georgier tried to force in vain a line machine Aeroflot on the flight from Tiflis to Leningrad with force of arms to the landing in Turkey. The kidnappers were condemned and executed to death.

Kidnapping

The nine kidnappers enstammten the Georgian Intelligenzija, were physicians, artists as well as actors, and wanted from the Soviet Union to flee. After the start Tupolev Tu-134A-Maschine with 57 passengers and seven crew members on board, two of them struck down a hostess, penetrated into the cockpit, shot two pilots and required in Turkey to land. The Navigationsoffizier shot a kidnapper and hurts the other one, which fled from the cockpit. It came to several shootings in the passenger cab. Tupolev landed the airport Tiflis. The kidnappers threatened with a breakup of the airplane and required the takeoff into Turkey.

Georgiens kp boss Eduard Shevardnadze requested a ALFA special-purpose force of the KGB from Moscow and supervised the employment at the airport personally. Parents of the kidnappers strove in vain to hold the party chief from the conquest of the machine. They explained themselves ready to go even on board and to move their children to the task. Shevardnadze rejected. The ALFA unit conquered the airplane on the early morning 19 November within eight minutes. Two further kidnappers died. Also two passengers and a hostess died. About the responsibility at its death until today one argues. Disputed is also, who caused the 63 capital invested holes in the airplane. The six survivors kidnappers were arrested.

Process

Shevardnadze called it "drug-dependent" and "bandit". In the prison they were allowed to receive neither attendance nor write letters. They were placed in August 1984 in Tiflis before court, condemned and executed to death. Their Beichtvater, which became an orthodox priest Theodor Tschichladse, few months later likewise arrested. Although he did not know anything from the plans to the kidnapping, as "ringleader" likewise to death one condemned and one shot.

The members of the kidnappers were exposed to strong political pressure over several years. Different ones lost their work on instruction of the communist party with national institutions.

Criticism

Many Georgier felt the Tiflisser plane hi-jacking as a national tragedy. In Tiflis circulated appeals, which turned against a death penalty for the kidnappers. In their eyes the kidnappers were young, educated people, which wanted to resign themselves not to the unfairness of the Soviet reality and about it dreamed to live in a free country. After the turn of 1991 they accused to Shevardnadze in newspaper articles, it the death penalty required, in order to strengthen its position in the communist party and to prove its loyalty opposite the center in Moscow.

2001 were in the free theatre (Georgian tavisupali teatri) in Tiflis the play Jeans generation, late Requiem of the author Dawit Turaschwili. It places the plane hi-jacking into the center. The national Marjanischwili theatre had rejected it before to bring the piece under the work title airplane boy on the stage.

Related links

• Tabular data to the Tiflisser plane hi-jacking (EN)
• Statements of the flight crew of the kidnapped machine (ru)
• Open letters of members of the kidnappers at Eduard Shevardnadze (EN)
• Report to the play over the Tiflisser plane hi-jacking (de)

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