During a five-day odyssey which included seven refuelling stops in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the cell's leader, who called himself Captain Martyr Mahmud, shot dead the pilot, Juergen Schumann. Then-chancellor Helmut Schmidt refused to give in even though RAF militants were also holding hostage the industrialist Hanns Martin Schleyer, a former SS officer. After nightfall, 30 German commandos landed, the plane's lights turned off. In a revenge act, RAF militants shot dead Schleyer, after five weeks in captivity. The RAF only disbanded in 1998, and, although it had ironically helped to vastly expand German police powers, many murders were never solved.

Source: The Local September 23, 2017 07:18 UTC