Terrorism: Failed Security

Liquid explosives in the sky

Air France Flight 747 from Frankfurt had just begun its descent toward Paris in the late-afternoon sun last Tuesday when three men, brandishing knives and Molotov cocktails, burst into the cockpit and demanded to be taken to Iran. Thus began for their 61 hostages a harrowing 46-hour journey of nearly 3,000 miles, with stops in Geneva, Beirut, Cyprus and, finally, Tehran. There the hijackers, by now mysteriously armed with revolvers and automatic pistols, declared that starting Thursday morning they would kill one French passenger every hour until...

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