Remembering December 17 1973 Rome airport Palestinian terrorist attack 32 civilians killed.
At approximately 12:51 local time in Rome, just as Flight 110 was preparing to
taxi, five suspects made their way through the
terminal building, armed with
automatic firearms and
grenades. The terrorists removed
submachine guns from hand-luggage bags and began firing throughout the terminal, shattering windows and killing two people. Pilots and crew in the
cockpit of the aircraft were able to observe travelers and airport employees in the building running for cover. Captain Erbeck announced over the plane's
public address system that there was "some commotion" in the terminal and instructed all the people on board to get down on the floor.
Several of the gunmen ran across the
tarmac toward the
Pan American jet, throwing one
phosphorus incendiary and other hand grenades through the open front and rear doors of the aircraft.
[9] The explosions knocked crew and passengers to the ground, and the cabin filled with thick, acrid smoke from the resulting fires. Stewardesses were able to open the
emergency exit over the wing on one side of the plane; the other exit was obstructed by gunmen. The crew attempted to evacuate as many passengers as possible through the available exit, but twenty-nine passengers and
purser Diana Perez
[7] died on the plane, including all eleven passengers in
first class.
Having assaulted the Pan Am aircraft, the five gunmen took hostage several Italians and Lufthansa ground crew members into Lufthansa Flight 303, waiting to depart for
Munich.
[12] An
Italian border police officer, 20-year-old Antonio Zara, was shot and killed when he first arrived at the scene of the attack and tried to fight the terrorists, after the general alarm had been sounded by the airport's
control tower.
The hijackers then forced the crew already on board to move the plane towards the runway in order to take off. For the first part of the
plane's taxiing, the aircraft was chased by several
Carabinieri and
Guardia di Finanza vehicles, who abandoned the chase after the hijackers threatened to kill all the hostages on board. At 13:32 hours, just over half an hour from the start of the action, the plane took off for
Athens,
Greece, where it arrived at 16:50 hours, local Athens time.
The attack was too fast to allow an adequate response from the airport's police forces. At the time, 117 officers were on duty at the airport: 9
carabinieri, 46
customs officers and 62
State Police officers, of which 8 were employed in the anti-sabotage service, a negligible number for an intercontinental airport like Fiumicino. The airport structure was unsuitable for the prevention of terrorist attacks, as it was designed at a time when such events were rare.
.